{"id":22383,"date":"2020-01-13T14:52:17","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T19:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=22383"},"modified":"2020-01-13T14:52:20","modified_gmt":"2020-01-13T19:52:20","slug":"refugees-texas-trump-administration-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/01\/13\/refugees-texas-trump-administration-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Governor Says \u2018No Mas\u2019 on Refugees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Declaring that his state has had enough, Gov. Greg Abbott is pulling Texas out<\/a> of the U.S. refugee resettlement program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Texas, which has accepted more refugees than any other state since 2010, is the first to quit the program. Opting out became an option under President Donald Trump\u2019s executive order<\/a> giving local governments veto power over resettlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reaching a high of 8,212 refugees in 2009, resettlement numbers\nin Texas subsequently hovered around 7,500 annually. In 2016, Abbott unsuccessfully sued the Obama\nadministration to prevent Syrian refugees from resettling in the Lone Star\nState.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2019, annual resettlements in the state had dropped to less than 3,000 as Trump reduced<\/a> the number of refugees allowed into the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a letter to U.S.\nSecretary of State Mike Pompeo, Abbott said resources should be concentrated on\nthe refugees already here. The governor also noted that Texas continues to\nstruggle with an ongoing influx of illegal aliens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn May 2019, for\nexample, around 100,000 migrants were apprehended crossing this state’s\nsouthern border. In June 2019, individuals from 52 different countries were\napprehended here,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abbott\u2019s decision doesn\u2019t mean refugees are barred from Texas.\nThe Executive Order allowing states to opt out still permits the government, in\nexigent circumstances, to settle refugees wherever it has appropriate resources\nand facilities.  In addition, they could\nstill move to Texas  after having been\nsettled in another state that\u2019s opted into the program. So far, 40 governors\nhave indicated they are willing to accept refugees, but not without some\nblowback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Tennessee<\/a>, several counties are opposing Gov. Bill Lee\u2019s decision to allow more refugees. How this will play out is unclear at present. The Executive Order soliciting state and local input on refugee resettlement indicates that the federal government should place refugees only in places where both the state and local government agree to accept them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abbott\u2019s action could be reversed if a federal judge in Maryland rules that Trump exceeded his authority with the opt-out provision. Judge Peter J. Messitte, a Clinton nominee, has questioned if the order was politically motivated<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meantime, mayors of Texas\u2019s biggest cities wasted no time\ngrandstanding on the issue. Channeling his inner Emma Lazarus, San Antonio\nMayor Ron Nirenberg tweeted, \u201cThere’s a guarantee at the gates of our\nnation that we offer respite to those who seek refuge. Rest assured that the\narms of [San Antonio] remain extended, welcoming those who hope for a better\ntomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nirenberg\u2019s\nuse of Lazarus\u2019s poem, found on a plaque inside the Statue of Liberty, is the\ntypically glib response of open-borders enthusiasts. It\u2019s badly out of time and\nplace. And, ironically, it ignores the fact that Lady Liberty was a gift from\nFrance, celebrating the shared Franco-American tradition of republican\ndemocracy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As one skeptic<\/a> put it: \u201cRegardless of what you think our nation\u2019s immigration policy should be today, it shouldn\u2019t be determined by a schmaltzy sonnet written for a different era.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Declaring that his state has had enough, Gov. Greg Abbott is pulling Texas out of the U.S. refugee resettlement program. Texas, which has accepted more refugees than any other state since 2010, is the first to quit the program. Opting out became an option under President Donald Trump\u2019s executive order giving local governments veto power<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":11342,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[511,1450],"tags":[1524,1413,675,105],"yst_prominent_words":[6979,7481,4043,4421,6320,2381,1983,2252,3792,1944,2105,7230,2101,2878,4999,2373,2329,2167,1946,1939],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22383"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22384,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22383\/revisions\/22384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22383"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=22383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}