Republicans rush to shut borders to Syrian refugees

Upon arrival in the United States, each refugee is eligible for a $1,975 arrival and placement grant that is managed by one of nine refugee resettlement agencies working with the federal government.

Rick Scott joined a growing list of Republican governors Monday who say they don’t want to resettle refugees from Syria in their states following last week’s deadly attacks in Paris.

The White House convened a conference call with governors earlier in the day explaining the vetting procedures for incoming immigrants.

Mocking GOP leaders for thinking they’re tough, Obama said overblown rhetoric from Republicans could be a potent recruitment tool for the Islamic State group.

Read Wednesday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

Tracy Samuel says, “Immigration is under the federal government not the state governments, so we will have to see what happens with their requests”.

Legal Policy Analyst Jon Freer says states can make things hard by withholding state funding for services like job training and teaching English to the newly arrived refugees. The USA will accept 85,000 people in 2016 and 100,000 in 2017. Syrian refugees are subject to extra review.

Annie Tracy Samuel says many refugees leave home because they are fearing death, destruction, violence, kidnapping the murder of their family, or being caught in a bomb attack. Ahead of a classified briefing Tuesday evening for lawmakers he assembled a task force of committee chairmen to bring refugee legislation to the floor as soon as this week.

“I understand why Americans have been particularly affected”, he said. So it’s not clear that any governors have the power to actually block refugee resettlement, as a few have pledged to do. She said he asked federal officials for “more robust data” and an “enhanced flow of information”. “And let us maintain America’s commitment to being a beacon of hope”.

But in the letter Scott urges Congress to take action to prevent President Barack Obama from using US tax dollars to pay for relocating Syrian refugees anywhere in the nation without an extensive evaluation of their national security risk.

“Now that ISIS is targeting Washington D.C., the intelligence community can not give us assurance that these refugees are not in fact terrorists in waiting”, said Collins.