Texas officially withdraws from US Refugee
Admissions Program; feds cannot assure security screening of all refugees, by Ann Corcoran 9/30/16
This is a major blow to the US Refugee
Admissions Program since Texas is, by far, the largest resettlement state in
the nation.
Texas Senator
Ted Cruz and Governor Greg Abbott seem to be in sync this week on protecting
Texas from not adequately screened refugees.
The governor’s complaint is that the federal
government cannot adequately assure the state of Texas that all of the refugees
from the Middle East and Africa being placed there are thoroughly
screened.
And, in fact,
that was confirmed in Senate testimony we heard this week (click
here). At
that hearing Senator Cruz of Texas elicited some damning testimony from federal
officials.
The arrogant
federal resettlement contractor will of course claim they can still operate in
Texas as a so-called Wilson-Fish state like more than a dozen other states
operate where there is no state government involvement. However, the
Wilson-Fish program itself is constitutionally questionable and Governor
Abbott, if serious, could block that too with a legal challenge.
But, at least
in the short run, the program will be seriously disrupted and that alone will
send ripples through the entire refugee industry.
Here
is the news (at Breitbart)
that happened on the eve of the new fiscal year (tomorrow!) which will see a
massive inflow of refugees especially from Syria and other hotbeds of terrorism unless the
Republican Congress cuts the funding for the program when Congress reconvenes
after the election in November.
Governor Greg Abbott has officially pulled the
plug on Texas’ participation in the federal refugee resettlement program after
the Obama Administration rejected specific security conditions.
The move by the
Texas governor stops the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (THHSC)
from coordinating the resettlement of these refugees that the Obama
Administration has repeatedly said they cannot certify not to be a threat to
the residents of the state. His action follows the rejection of a proposal
announced previously where Texas officials demanded a certification that the
refugees were not a security threat and a limit on the number of refugees to
the original 2016 plan.
“Texas has
repeatedly requested that the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
and the Director of National Intelligence provide assurances that refugees
resettled in Texas will not pose a security threat, and that the number of
refugees resettled in Texas would not exceed the State’s original allocation in
fiscal year 2016 – both of which have been denied by the federal government,”
Abbott said in a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas. “As a result, Texas
will withdraw from the refugee resettlement program. As governor, I will continue to prioritize the
safety of all Texans and urge the federal government to overhaul this severely
broken system.” Go
here for more
details.
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