Alabama Becomes Second State to Sue Federal Government over Refugee Resettlement



20699620022_5e3f9f8606_oAttorneys representing the State of Alabama filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on January 7 contesting the actions of the United States government in resettling refugees in the state. Alabama is the second state to file a lawsuit against the feds, after Texas. Both states contend the Obama Administration is circumventing requirements established by federal law to consult with states and take in local recommendations as to the placement of refugees resettled in their states.

Specifically, the State of Alabama charged that the federal government has failed to provide the state with sufficient information regarding the refugees the federal government has settled or plans to settle in the state. The complaint also charged that the state has been denied a meaningful role in the refugee resettlement process, one that it is entitled to under federal law.

States play an important role in influencing refugee resettlement in the United States. Generally, federal law requires cooperation between federal, state, and local governments, as well as private non-profit voluntary agencies, when it comes to the resettlement of refugees admitted to the United States. The law specifically states that such consultation “shall” take place “regularly (not less often than quarterly)” and that it should concern “the sponsorship process and the intended distribution of refugees among the states and localities before their placement…” (See 8 U.S.C. § 1522(a)(2)(A))(emphasis added) Federal law further requires the federal government to take into account the recommendations of the state to the maximum extent possible. (Id. § 1522(a)(2)(D))(emphasis added).

Alabama Governor Bentley commented on the lawsuit. “We would like to know who is coming into our state. … We need to know any background information that supposedly is gathered,” Bentley said. Governor Bentley joined more than half of the nation’s governors in last November in opposing the resettlement of additional Syrian refugees into the United States following the following the brutal attacks in Paris, France, and Beirut, Lebanon, that left hundreds dead or wounded.

In its complaint, the State of Alabama requested the Court to declare the federal government’s consultation obligations to the State and order the federal government to provide the State a meaningful role and input into the resettlement process, as required by federal law. Additionally, the State requests the court to order the federal government disclose sufficient information regarding refugees settled or to be settled in Alabama so the state may assess any security, health, or other risks posed by the incoming population so that the state may adequately plan for additional requests for social services and public assistance.

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Content written by Federation for American Immigration Reform staff.

11 Comments

    • avatar

      Sorry ti hear you were laid off and therefore retired……hopefully you will live a long life and your money will last despite the taxes but if not…just join the biggest demographics in Welfare: Whites.

      • avatar

        You keep making that claim about whites being the biggest recipients of welfare when you know it’s not true. In total numbers they are, but that’s only because there are 4 times as many whites as any other group. But if you talk the percentages of groups who are on welfare, it’s blacks and Hispanics who are more likely to be on welfare than whites. Everyone knows this is true.

        Whites use a little over 50% of total welfare but are 70% of the population. Therefore the average white person is less likely to be on welfare than the average black or Hispanic. Medicaid [not Medicare] is a true welfare program and Latinos are nearly 30% of recipients, which is double their share of the population. But when did the facts matter to you?

        • avatar

          I Was Not Laid Off

          I retired early because my net pay went up and you live longer retired.

          I already paid for my entitlements, so deserve them. Its the IAs that are stealing us blind….and threatening entitlements for real Americans, any ethnic group.

          • avatar

            I knew you retired. He’s just doing his usual trouble making. And that was the point I made about Medicaid vs. Medicare. You pay into Medicare for decades and Medicaid is nothing but a pure welfare program because it’s all ages, sometimes without paying a dime into it.

  1. avatar

    Can they also sue about resettling Cuban refugees? Since Obama normalized relations, is the Cuban Adjustment Act effectively nullifies? I mean, whats the point. It no longer needed. Cold War is over, dude.

    • avatar

      The people who come here are not the people who would qualify as refugees. Those are the people who stay and defy the dictatorship. One in particular is a group called Ladies In White. They protest the continued jailing of dissidents every Sunday after Mass. The Cuban government’s harassment of them has increased since we “normalized” relations with Cuba last year but you don’t hear a word a support from our president for them. In fact what we have seen is this president smiling and shaking hands with Raul Castro in Panama, and recently saying he is going to reward Cuba with a presidential visit this year.

  2. avatar

    None of this is going to stop until we elect a candidate who enforces immigration law. All of the Democrats, have pledged they will not do that. Why not take them at their word. Of course, their problem will be the statements made in the past by both Hillary and Bernie against illegal immigration and amnesty. Now it’s just a race to out pander each other for Latino votes. The question though is how do you have laws that apply only to American citizens but not to citizens of other countries? Do we want to reward things like illegal entry and identity theft with citizenship? Why would those people feel they have to obey any laws?

    The president just claimed in his state of the union address that immigrants don’t depress wages and insisted it’s all the fault of corporations. But it’s corporations that are the biggest backers of visas for foreign workers, because they know with an unending foreign labor supply that American workers have no bargaining power to ask for higher wages,

    You won’t accept 8 dollars an hour? Well, get out of the way then because we have a foreign visa worker who will and we don’t have to pay SS taxes for him. Business will pay what they can get away with paying and they want to pay less. Trying to claim no connection between immigration, depressed wages, and corporations is willful blindness.

    • avatar

      The president is correct………it is the corporations………you just confirm it in your last sentence you dummy!!

      • avatar

        He’s correct? He said immigration has nothing to do with it, that it’s only the corporations. I said “Trying to claim there’s no connection between immigration, depressed wages, and corporations is willful blindness.” Which happens to be true.

        So where am I wrong? Apparently you are so oblivious that you don’t know that it’s corporations that are pushing mass immigration. Why do you think they are doing that? If you have another explanation other than they want it to keep wages down you need to provide that explanation.

    • avatar

      you are a funny guy Leland………the guys coming from overseas like for instance indians……are displacing not only Americans but also green card holders…….etc etc…the situation is really bad….but still think about the illegals or Mexicans HAHAHA!! they are just a drop it he bucket….WHY?? use your head…..anything they earn is not on the books…….and it is only 3-5 % of the population SO it is the corporations………..if they hired people within …..and the gov stopping other countries from buying our corps and if so to hire mainly Americans…that is why!!….you had an easy life Leland it appears…