Posted by Ann Corcoran on November 17, 2015
We are going to find out as the latest news is that 27 governors have in one way or another said—count me out when it comes to Syrian resettlement.
[I hope to get time today to post some other considerations—one that I want everyone to understand is that we have been admitting tens of thousands of Muslim refugees for years from Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Burma and Uzbekistan, just to name a few, and I am not confident they had any thorough screening either, especially the Somalis.
And, please remember that the problems we (and France) are having with terrorists in the immigrant population is that most have been raised in the protective bosom of our generous social welfare systems. So the parents might have come in as (vetted) decent people, but their children became radicalized right here among us.
All the vetting in the world isn’t going to save us from the toddlers coming in with Mom and Dad from Africa and the Middle East who thumb their noses at the ‘good life’ and become radicalized 20 years down the road. The only true solution is a completemoratorium on Muslim immigration. (See White House Petition). Will these governors have the will for that? I doubt it!]
Back to the news…..
CNN filed this story about the governors’ power (or lack of it). We know that ol’ Ted Kennedy and ol’ Joe Biden were very clever indeed when they crafted what became the Refugee Act of 1980 which is run almost completely by the US State Department, the Dept. of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement and the ‘non-profit’ contractors who play a huge role in changing the demographics of your states. There is very little role for Congress in the law either (short of the power of the purse which they are increasingly scared to use!).
(CNN)A wave of governors — mostly Republicans — issued a cascade of press releases Monday voicing objections to Syrian refugees landing their states, following the Paris attacks.
Appleby is the chief lobbyist for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the federal contractor that resettles the largest number of Muslim refugees in the US. Last time I looked the Bishops were getting around $70 million annually from US taxpayers to do this work. We have many posts on him here:https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/?s=Kevin+Appleby
Experts say that while the states may not have the legal authority to block their borders, state agencies have authority to make the process of accepting refugees much more difficult.
“When push comes to shove, the federal government has both the plenary power and the power of the 1980 Refugee Act to place refugees anywhere in the country,” said Kevin Appleby, the director of migration policy at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the largest refugee resettlement organization in the country.
Appleby said one thing the states could do was to cut their own funding in the area.
This is the power the governors have—cut funding for welfare and other social services (most don’t even have a clue how much state and local taxpayers are shelling out for a program that was supposed to be fully-funded from Washington 35 years ago and with the additional financial help from the non-profit contractors).
American University law professor Stephen I. Vladeck put it this way: “Legally, states have no authority to do anything because the question of who should be allowed in this country is one that the Constitution commits to the federal government.”
But Vladeck notes that without a state’s participation the federal government would have a much more difficult time. “So a state can’t say it is legally objecting, but it can refuse to cooperate, which makes thing much more difficult.”
Indeed that is going to be the real test! It is easy to spout-off with a letter now (after Paris), much harder to really put action behind those words. Be assured we will be watching!
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