US, aid group oppose Texas efforts to block Syrian refugees

The International Rescue Committee, the relief agency resettling the refugees, filed a separate lawsuit against the state asserting that Texas could not discriminate against refugees based on nationality.

Amid a legal battle that has delayed the arrival of Syrian refugees in Texas, a suburban Houston church held a rally in support of its neighbor – a mosque – as well as local Muslims.

The Texas health commission has asked the federal court for an immediate restraining order and a hearing by December 9 for an injunction that would prevent resettlement.

“Though we anticipate New York City will only be a temporary home for these families while the state of Texas pursues a baseless attempt to resist their resettlement in the state, we welcome them with open arms to the city of immigrants”, de Blasio said. This week’s terror attack in San Bernardino, California, where a woman who had been screened by counterterrorism group in the Department of Homeland Security prior to receiving a visa participated in the mass murder of 14 people, brought even more emphasis on the need to properly screen refugees. He accused the IRC of violating federal law by not cooperating with the state after Abbott last month ordered resettlement groups in Texas to stop accepting Syrians.

Texas balked at taking in the three families – whose identities are not known – and became the first state to sue the government to stop refugees from coming in.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says he’s opening his city’s doors to Syrian refugee families after Texas sued the federal government to block their settlement.

“The FBI as well as other federal officials have made it clear – they have no ability to ensure the safety and security of the refugees they are admitting into the United States”, Abbott has said.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday withdrew a request for a temporary restraining order that sought to stop six Syrian refugees from coming to Dallas, but Paxton isn’t entirely dropping the suit.

However, Paxton is still going forward with the lawsuit. Many of them are children younger than 13 and include grandparents and a single woman hoping to reunite with her mother, who is already in Texas.

Since the fiscal year 2011, 243 Syrian refugees have resettled in Texas, the USA filing said, making the state one of the main US relocation sites since the Syrian civil war erupted about four years ago. Nine others are scheduled to arrive in Houston on Thursday.

Texas “has made no showing that these refugees pose any threat, much less an imminent one, to the safety or security of Texas residents or any other Americans”, the Obama administration told the court. “Immigration policy is the jurisdiction of the federal government, and once refugees are allowed into the country, states can not easily prevent them from entering”.

The federal government announced earlier Friday that the two families would be coming Monday. A second family scheduled to arrive in Houston, also on Monday, include four children aged 2 to 13 and their parents, according to court filings.

The first two families listed didn’t receive a “material support” exemption that had anxious state officials who oppose Syrian refugee resettlement in Texas, the brief said.

Texas backed down after the Obama administration and the ACLU filed court papers challenging the lawsuit.