Texas Gov. Abbott First to Deny Refugee Resettlement Under Recent Trump Admin. Order

Nick Kangadis | January 13, 2020
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Haven’t you heard? The U.S. is evil, Texas in particular. Even though the U.S. is basically the world’s police, allows the United Nations to inhabit the country’s biggest city, gives more humanitarian aid to other nations than any other country and provides opportunity to more people than any other country because of the freedoms the U.S. has, the U.S. is evil.

Sometimes, you need to have the guts to stand up and say ‘enough.’

While the media was more interested in whether Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will continue to live in a castle or not, Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) released a letter on Friday stating that the state of Texas will not be accepting any new refugees.

The move makes Texas the first state to deny refugees following a September 2019 Trump administration order stating that resettlement agencies “must get written consent from state and local officials in any jurisdiction where they want to help resettle refugees beyond June 2020,” according to the Associated Press (AP).

In a Friday letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Abbott basically said ‘enough.’

Here’s what Abbott wrote to Pompeo:

On behalf of the State of Texas, I write in response to Executive Order 13888, on Enhancing State and Local Involvement in Refugee Resettlement, as issued by President Trump on September 26, 2019.

Texas is one of the most welcoming states for refugees seeking to escape dangers abroad. Since FY2010, more refugees have been received in Texas than in any other state. In fact, over that decade, roughly 10% of all refugees resettled in the United States have been placed in Texas. Even today, the process of resettling continues for many of these refugees.

In addition to accepting refugees all these years, Texas has been left by Congress to deal with disproportionate migration issues resulting from a broken federal immigration system. In May 2019, for example, around 100,000 migrants were apprehended crossing this state’s southern border. In June 2019, individuals from 52 different countries were apprehended here. And in FY2018, the apprehensions included citizens from disparate countries like China, Iran, Kenya, Russian, and Tonga. Texas continues to have to deal with the consequences of an immigration system that Congress has failed to fix.

At this time, the state and non-profit organizations have a responsibility to dedicate available resources to those who are already here, including refugees, migrants, and the homeless — indeed, all Texans. As a result, Texas cannot consent to initial refugee resettlement for FY2020. This decision does not deny any refugee access to the United States. Nor does it preclude a refugee from later coming to Texas after initially settling in another state.

Texas has more than its share in assisting the refugee resettlement process and appreciates that other states are available to help with these efforts.

I think that a letter like that makes Abbott’s decision pretty clear, and it’s not like his argument for not accepting more refugees is unreasonable.

The AP noted that 42 other governors have said they will consent to accepting more refugees, but the remaining governors that haven’t are all Republicans (Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Wyoming).

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