Texas is expecting some Syrian refugees to arrive on Monday but will consider to seek court injunctions to prevent the flow from continuing. Another 29 states in the country are siding with Texas in refusing to allow refugees to come into their respective states.
The state of Texas is expecting 21 refugees from Syria next week to enter the state through Houston and Dallas. While the Texas state government says it will likely allow the Syrians in, it has made a public vow to prevent anymore of the world’s refugees from coming to the Lone Star State.
Texas is just one of 30 states nationwide that have made pledges to prevent refugees from entering and settling in their states, according to The Los Angeles Times. It has become a huge political and emotional issue in Texas and the state was the first state to take the issue to court. Many observers believe that the Texas situation will greatly influence federal policy about how refugees are taken in and settled in America.
In the past month or so, many Muslim mosques have been attacked and vandalized as resistance among the Texas citizenry grows. Even the Texas state commission on agriculture jumped in to the fray. They posted pictures of refugees and rattlesnakes with a caption asking the refugees if they knew which type of rattlesnake is not likely to bite them.
Texas has taken in 243 Syrian refugees in the last 5 years and they are only second to California in taking in the most refugees. The state of Texas sued the federal government in court on Friday in an effort to get the situation cleared up one way or another. Texas believes that the Syrian refugees will become a threat to the security of the Texas citizenry.
Federal authorities have claimed that Texas, and other states, don’t have any legal right to refuse refugees if it has been dictated by the federal government unless the state can clearly show that the refugees will, indeed, pose some manner of direct threat to the safety of citizens. The federal government says that the states are subordinate to what the president and the federal government dictates as being the national interest.
The American Civil Liberties Union has sided with the federal government. Texas will continue to fight the re-settlement in court and Texas authorities state that the federal government is overstepping the law if it refuses to consult with Texas, or any other state, before it dares make any unilateral decisions that directly affects the lives of people living in Texas or other states.
