Center for Immigration Studies: Feds have long ago
usurped States’ Rights when it comes to refugee resettlement, by Ann Corcoran on January 24, 2018
Don Barnett writing at the Center for Immigration Studies today
explained in detail how states are forced to accept and pay for third world
refugees admitted through the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) to the
US and sent to 49 states.
(Emphasis below is mine):
The State of Tennessee filed a lawsuit against the federal government
in March 2017 claiming that the refugee resettlement program was an imposition
by Washington over which the state had no control.1 The lawsuit is pending, but it highlights a deep problem
with how the refugee resettlement program has evolved since the passage of the Refugee Act
in 1980.
The Refugee Act of 1980 has been so
modified by illegal federal regulations that the states have lost their ability
to control their own budgets.
This Backgrounder traces the history
of the federal-state relationship regarding refugees, identifies flaws, and
proposes solutions. Among the findings:
~Repealing regulation 45 CFR 400.301
could have the immediate effect of allowing states to withdraw from the U.S.
Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) and end initial resettlement activities in
the state.2
~Today, states that withdraw from
the program find the program continues in the state with the potential to
operate on a larger scale than before withdrawal and with no state
participation.
~As implemented, states have a
limited and ill-defined role in the federal USRAP.
~Congress has shirked its responsibility to fully fund the refugee
resettlement program.
~The federal government has shifted much of the fiscal burden of
refugee resettlement to states. Three years
of reimbursement for the state portion of welfare programs used by
refugees in the state, such as Medicaid,
TANF and SSI, was authorized by the 1980 Refugee Act. This support was ended
entirely.
~The Act authorized Refugee Medical
Assistance (RMA) and Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA) for three years for refugees
who do not qualify for cash welfare and Medicaid. This support was gradually
scaled back; today RCA and RMA are available for only eight months.
~This cost shift to the states means the federal government is, in
effect, using state funds to operate a federal program. In cases where a state asks to withdraw from the program,
continuation of the program means the state has lost its ability to control its
own budget and is deprived of its sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment.
~Consultation among “stakeholders” about where refugees are to be
settled is ill-defined in the USRAP.At
times there is no meaningful consultation with state authorities.
~The federal government uses a
legally questionable regulation (45 CFR 400.301) rather than statutory law to
allow private non-profits to operate in a state where the state has asked to
withdraw from the program.
~By one reading of the law, prior to 45 CFR 400.301, there was no
authority to resettle refugees in states that chose to withdraw from the
program. In other words, prior to 1994 when 45 CFR 400.301 was
introduced, the states were — knowingly or not — participating in and paying
for a voluntary program from which they had every right to withdraw at any time
with the expectation that no refugees would be resettled in the state.
And, I repeat! If there is no reform
of the entire US Refugee Admissions Program in the next three years,
simplyreducing the numbers as the Trump Administration is doing is meaningless in the
long run.
The President can and must, as part
of any immigration reform, issue regulations in keeping with the original law
wherever possible, and, or, tell Congress to rewrite the law if it is in our
national interest to continue it at all.
If no permanent fix….
…..when President Trump’s
term ends, refugee agencies
and advocates will push
for even larger numbers of refugees to make up for what they will dub the lost
Trump years.
Looking for something to do? Get
this information into the hands of your state governors and legislators!
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