U.S. state to sue agencies accepting Syrian refugees

Several governors – mostly Republican – announced their opposition to accepting any new Syrian refugees in their state until they could be assured that security safeguards were in place.

Let us not forget that from the 9/11 attacks on the United States to this year’s January and November attacks on Paris, the culprits were either legal residents or illegal immigrants, not faux refugees.

Rauner’s one of some 30 governors nationwide who’ve said no to taking in people fleeing war-ravaged Syria. He says the difficulty of getting good information from within Syria means even the current 18-to-36 month refugee vetting process needs to be reviewed.

The White House is proposing to offer governors individualized reports about refugees in their states.

North Dakota Refugee Coordinator Shirley Dykshoorn said Monday that refugees are processed through established volunteer agencies and sites throughout the state.

“The White House is snookering these governors”, she said. They do not want to live in countries with oppressive leaders like ISIS.

The head of that agency has backed up Abbott’s rhetoric with a stern warning to state agencies with a different outlook on the refugee issue.

Another clause in this section appears to contradict this, however, mandating that “assistance and services funded under this section shall be provided to refugees without regard to race, religion, nationality, sex, or political opinion”.

The agencies work as an arm of the federal government but are shielded from the requirements of the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Larry Treleaven, Rugby, N.D., said he read the article on a conservative news site and became concerned when the article mentioned the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe reservation in North Dakota as one of the refugee locations.

“It’s like the last door you’re knocking on, (and) if that door’s not open to you, that’s it, it’s the end”, refugee Lita Amin said.

Meanwhile, Aaron Rippenkroeger, CEO of Refugee Services of Texas, told ThinkProgress that his workers plan to “continue to serve our clients while we seek guidance on the ramifications of the [Texas government’s] request to discontinue resettlement services for Syrian refugees in the future”.

In his home country of Lebanon, just about 1.2 million Syrian refugees have entered the country since the Syrian Civil War began in 2011, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency website. The House of Representatives, defying a veto threat by Obama, has passed Republican-backed legislation to suspend the refugee program.

Governors do, however, have some control over the purse strings that make refugee resettlement possible.

“The International Rescue Committee hopes that Texas will continue to honor this long-standing tradition and its commitment to the U.S. Constitution”, they said. “Immigration is a federal issue”.

The list of governors who oppose the idea of letting Syrian refugees into their states is steadily increasing.

31 governors, including every Republican governor except Utah’s Gary Herbert, have called for a suspension of Syrian refugees in their states.

“These families are already under an incredible amount of stress”, Otolski said of the family’s anticipated arrival later this month. Of them, more than 80 percent are refugees from Myanmar and Somalia. The bill would require new Federal Bureau of Investigation background checks and individual sign-offs from three high-ranking USA officials before any refugee could come to the US from Iraq or Syria, where the Islamic State group that has claimed credit for the attacks has flourished.