Texas threatens resettlement agency over Syrian refugees

I’ve talked about it before: that fear has been the root behind responses by the United States to various historical events – The Red Scare, Pearl Harbor, the years of segregation in the South. He says it would break down refugees by nationality, gender and age range.

Officials at some Texas-based resettlement offices said last week they were awaiting legal guidance from their headquarters in Washington.

Bryan Black, a spokesperson for the Texas health agency, said on Monday that the IRC was the only group to have received such a letter.

In a Wednesday letter to aid group International Rescue Committee, Texas health commissioner Chris Traylor took the state’s anti-immigrant rhetoric further.

Conservative leaders, including a former USA attorney general and a previous chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, are warning that the United States is putting its national security at risk unless it strengthens the vetting of Syrian refugees. Out of the four million Syrian refugees living in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, the United Nations agency for refugees flags about 20,000 for consideration to be admitted to the US. The bill, now before the US Senate, creates almost insurmountable procedural obstacles for resettling refugees from Syria and Iraq in the US, Human Rights Watch said.

The Obama administration set a goal of resettling 10,000 Syrians in the U.S.in 2016.

The letter, however, was unlikely to satisfy other governors who, in several cases, suggested they would instruct key agencies and departments in their states not to work with the resettlement program or oppose them outright, though it was unclear what practical effect those instructions would have.

White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said in letters to Cuomo and other governors that the administration will provide them with “a tailored report” each month on refugees resettled in their states, if they request it.

According to the State Department, the USA welcomed 1,682 Syrian refugees is fiscal year 2015. Rippenkroeger said in a statement that Refugee Services was still examining the legal implications of the order. As for Traylor, in addition to threatening the IRC Dallas branch with a lawsuit, he said if the organization doesn’t stop with its plans to resettle Syrians, a state contract could be threatened. There is no doubt that what happened on the streets of Paris on November 13 was horrific and the actions of a terrorist organization.

That’s the attitude of Texas and 30 other states as they continue to refuse refugees at their borders and President Obama threatens enforcement actions per the 1964 Civil Rights Act. He fled Syria after he was held at gunpoint by a group of armed militants in his hometown of Daraa and resettled in Dallas in February with his wife and infant daughter.

“We invite Gov. Rauner to meet with Syrian families who have already arrived and are working hard to rebuild their lives”, Syrian Community Network President Suzanne Sahloul said.

The White House is reaching out to Gov. Rick Snyder and other state governors to reassure and educate them about the process of vetting and admitting refugees from Syria and elsewhere.