Texas keeps up the pressure on Syrian refugees

A copy of the letter was obtained by The Associated Press.

The Dallas branch of International Rescue Committee (IRC) said on Tuesday it “believes wholeheartedly in its refugee resettlement program”, and has already reached out to Texas Governor Greg Abbott to talk through the issues. A large number of Syrian refugees have also resettled in California and MI.

Refugee advocates have said the governors have no legal power to exclude entry based on a person’s nationality to anyone in the United States legally.

This weekend, the state threatened to take legal action and terminate the contract of the Dallas office of the International Rescue Committee, which resettles refugees on behalf of the US government. “However it is important not to conflate terrorists with the Syrian refugees who are seeking sanctuary in the United States”, a statement from the group reads.

That’s after reports that one of the people behind the attacks in Paris posed as a Syrian refugee.

A State Department factsheet issued last Wednesday stated that Syrian refugees admitted to the USA since the beginning of FY2011 were allowed to do so “only after the most extensive level of security screening of any category of traveler to the United States”. It’s worth remembering that one of the justifications for rejecting those Jewish refugees was the fear of saboteurs and insurrectionists hidden among them. Numerous refugees are women and children.

The lawsuit argues that both the U.S. government and the IRC have violated federal law to “consult with the State on placement if refugees in Texas” by advancing with the plan to resettle the 6 Syrian refugees in Dallas.

And her organization plans to continue its work despite the state’s action, she said. He called for Americans to display their full “generosity” in welcoming refugees into the country with no reservations.

The State Department said that out of the 85,000 refugees to be accepted in fiscal year 2016, 10,000 of the slots will be reserved for Syrians. The process takes around two years and has been effective thus far. By contrast, 636 Iraqi refugees and 498 Somali refugees have resettled in OR in that same period, according to data from the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Just since 2002, the United Nations and U.S. State Department have delivered 79,377 Muslim refugees to U.S. cities from Iraq, 90,000 from Somalia, 11,000 from Afghanistan and thousands of others from Bosnia, Uzbekistan, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Burma, according to federal databases. However, per the Paris attacks and Abbott’s subsequent order to state agencies, groups like IRC were supposed to abandon current resettlement projects until a later date.

Pence spokesman Matt Lloyd said the governor has not shifted his stance and blamed the Obama administration for failing to “provide adequate security and background information to governors across the country”.

“Yet Rep. Duckworth continues to ignore the concerns of the Director of the FBI, Director of National Intelligence, and the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center about our government’s flawed vetting process which can not ensure that these refugees are not part of ISIS”.