Texas says withdrawing from U.S. refugee resettlement program

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Texas gave notice on Wednesday that it was withdrawing from participating in the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement's program, citing security concerns after failing in federal court to halt the inflow of Syrian refugees into the state.

The Texas State Refugee Coordinator sent a letter to the agency, giving 120 days notice of its intention to withdraw, charging that the program was riddled with problems that present security risks, Republican Governor Greg Abbott said.

"Despite multiple requests by the State of Texas, the federal government lacks the capability or the will to distinguish the dangerous from the harmless, and Texas will not be an accomplice to such dereliction of duty to the American people," Abbott said in a statement.

Texas, a bellwether state for conservative policies, has seen other Republican-led states follow its lead in challenging the Obama administration's refugee resettlement plans in and out of the courts.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-refugees-texas-idUSKCN11R2FI

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U.S. | Wed Sep 21, 2016 | 2:07pm EDT
By Jon Herskovitz | AUSTIN, TEXAS

[Gothmog]

1. This should have no effect of Refugees coming to Texas

[dembotoz]

2. there was a pbs show last night on the Sharps....A unitarian couple during ww2 who helped

a whole bunch of jews escape the Holocaust

they could have saved more but the united states would not allow them to enter

the words Never Again lost their meaning rather quickly didn't they

[machoneman]

3. Abbott, being a major...

a-hole I'm sure was expected to do this yet it should have zero impact. He and his camp followers are just being themselves in rejecting any and all Federal programs, especially under President Obama. I do hope that HRC, our next President, hits TX hard by closing military bases entirely, moves all Federal offices out-of-state and
essentially does everything possible to deny all Federal dollars to this maverick state.

[LuckyLib]

9. Good point -- you don't want federal resources (except, of course,

when you want them following a major catastrophe)? No problem. We can take care of that right away.

[Loki]

4. Texas just needs to put a big yellow stripe across it's flag for cowardice.

Lived there a long time, all hat and no cattle wussies. My husband still teaches down there and this last weekend one of his dentist/students came in for a recertification of his ACLS and anesthesia re-cert. Had his big NRA shirt on and his big Glock side arm on his fat assed hips. If you come into my husband's class looking like a fool, you will certainly leave looking like a bigger fool. All the women in the class knew the answers and Mr. NRA didn't.

[Historic NY]

5. Interesting few refugees have been involved in anything

A State Department spokesperson said of the nearly 785,000 refugees admitted through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program since 9/11, “only about a dozen — a tiny fraction of one percent of admitted refugees — have been arrested or removed from the U.S. due to terrorism concerns that existed prior to their resettlement in the U.S. None of them were Syrian.” The spokesperson declined to specify what exactly the security concerns were, how many of the dozen were arrested, and for what charges.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/11/19/the-viral-claim-that-not-one-refugee-resettled-since-911-has-been-arrested-on-domestic-terrorism-charges/


At this point we've had more home-grown terrorism/terrorists.

[YOHABLO]

6. I wouldn't send any refugees to Texas. You would be putting them in harms way; seriously.

[angrychair]

7. Well....ok

Sorry Texas, your xenophobic, irrational hate mongering is irrelevant.

This is federal, not state. Your opinion is noted but meaningless.

[sinkingfeeling]

8. What absolute bulls***. Show me the proof you have, Mr.

Abbott, of resettled refugees causing harm in Texas.

[olddad56]

10. would there even be refugee issue had it not been for a certain president from Texas

and his fucking illegal invasions.

Most of the refugees would probably be better off back in an uninhabitable land than in Texas anyway.

[JI7]

11. yes but the war made it tougher to deal with

the least he could do right now is speak out in support of allowing them in.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

12. They're gonna need a bigger wall.

They'll need more checkpoints on the border. In addition to the MX border, there's LA, NM, OK, AR.