Refugee Program 10th Amendment Lawsuit

Tennessee’s Tenth Amendment case against federal Refugee Admissions Program is moving ahead! by Ann Corcoran on October 25, 2016

Here is the breaking news from Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart:

The Tennessee General Assembly has selected the Thomas More Law Center to represent the state in its lawsuit against the federal government over the resettlement of refugees in the Volunteer State.

The Ann Arbor, Michigan based nonprofit public interest law firm made the announcement in a press statement released on Tuesday.

The Thomas More Law Center will represent the state free of charge in the “constitutional challenge to the federal government’s refugee resettlement program as a violation of the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”

Tennessee is one of twelve states that have withdrawn from the federal refugee resettlement program in which it is operated by the federal government under the statutorily-questionable Wilson Fish alternative program. Texas is the thirteenth state to withdrawn from the federal program, effective in January. Two additional states, Vermont and Massachusetts, allow the federal government to resettle refugees within their boundaries under the Wilson Fish alternative program, but have not withdrawn from the federal program. Continue reading here.

This lawsuit is available for only those so-called Wilson Fish states (feds and a non-profit contractor call the shots on resettlement bypassing the state legislature) that have withdrawn from the federal program.  As mentioned above, Texas is the most recent one to do so.  Within the last year Kansas and New Jersey have withdrawn as well, so they don’t yet appear on this outdated ORR list.

So what should you do—tell your state to withdraw and then have the governor sign up as a plaintiff with the Thomas More Law Center! But, don’t forget to pressure your member of Congress to DEFUND the program in the lame duck session of Congress next month.  This lawsuit is going to take a little while to work its way through the system and in the meantime (if Trump isn’t elected) we could have another quarter of a million refugees spread out across 49 states (assuming Wyoming continues to hold out!) by the time a legal judgement and the appeals process has been exhausted.

Here are the Wilson Fish states.  By the way, there is one county on the list (San Diego County) so this could mean a county could withdraw and join the lawsuit.  I’m not a lawyer, but I can’t see why that wouldn’t work!

Alabama
Alaska
Colorado
Idaho
Kentucky
Louisiana
Massachusetts
Nevada
North Dakota
South Dakota
Tennessee
Vermont

And then New Jersey, Kansas and Texas have joined the list. Come on Governors Abbott (TX), Brownback (KS) and Christie (NJ) show some fight!

https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2016/10/25/tennessees-tenth-amendment-case-against-federal-refugee-admissions-program-is-moving-ahead/