Tag Archives: refugees

Haslam OK with more Syrian refugees in TN

Gov. Bill Haslam said Thursday he has confidence in the vetting process for Syrian refugees and and has no objection to more settling in Tennessee, reports the News Sentinel.

His comments come a day after the Obama administration announced it plans to sharply increase the number of refugees accepted by the United States to 110,000 in fiscal 2017.

During an appearance at a luncheon in Anderson County, the governor said he recently met with U.S. State Department officials and Catholic Charities and is convinced “they’re doing a good job” vetting refugees coming to Tennessee.

The Republican governor said there aren’t many times he trusts the federal government, “but I do think they have all the right controls and procedures in place” regarding background checks and vetting for resettlement.

The Obama administration said the additional refugee intake is necessary to help stem a migrant crisis gripping Europe and the Middle East. The new target is a 29 percent increase over the 85,000 refugees accepted this fiscal year and a 57 percent hike over the 70,000 allowed in each year between 2013 and 2015.

More than 10,000 Syrian refugees have been allowed into the country this year, and new figures released Thursday provide a clearer picture of where they’re resettling.

Some 240 have resettled in Tennessee, according to the State Department Refugee Processing Center. Of those, 124 are in Nashville, 112 are in Memphis, three are in Germantown and one is in Spring Hill.

…Resettlement has proven controversial in many states, including Tennessee, where the Legislature voted earlier this year to instruct Attorney General Herbert Slatery to sue the federal government for noncompliance with the Refugee Act of 1980.

Proponents argued the legal proceedings were necessary because the federal government didn’t consult with the state on the resettlements.

Haslam allowed the resolution calling for the lawsuit to take effect without his signature. Slatery, however, declined to file the suit, saying the state was unlikely to succeed.

State Senate campaign mailer: ISIS welcomed in TN?

Ron McDow, opposing incumbent Steve Dickerson in the state Senate District 20 GOP primary, is attacking Dickerson in a new mail piece for not signing a letter in November that asked Gov. Bill Haslam to ban future Syrian refugees from entering Tennessee.

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Further, from The Tennessean:

The mail piece, paid for by McDow’s campaign, features an image of an ISIS flag hanging from the front door of a suburban home. There’s also a doormat that says “Welcome” in letters that are intended to resemble Arabic.

“Does Steve Dickerson want ISIS living next door to your family?” the ad reads.

“Steve Dickerson says come on in – and puts out the welcome mat for potentially dangerous Syrian refugees. We do not know who they are or what they intend to do here.”

…In an interview with the Tennessean on Monday, the one-term senator said he stands by that decision and rejected allegations made in the ad… He said one of the unfortunate pieces of this mailer is that it “confuses the people who are fleeing ISIS and ISIS itself.”

“The people who we are trying to welcome into the country are people who are literally in fear of their lives,” he said. “So, I regret that that has occurred … This [ad] also misrepresents the refugee community at-large by painting them with this brush.”

Slatery won’t sue feds over refugees in TN despite legislative mandate

By Travis Loller, Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery won’t sue the federal government over its refugee resettlement program.

A General Assembly resolution passed earlier this year had demanded legal action. Gov. Bill Haslam allowed it to take effect without his signature in May.

“I have constitutional concerns about one branch of government telling another what to do,” Haslam wrote to lawmakers at the time.

In a Tuesday letter to the clerks of the state Senate and House of Representatives, Slatery outlined what he sees as lawmakers’ two concerns about refugee resettlement. One is that federal officials are not properly consulting with state and local officials, as required by law. The other is that the federal government is confiscating state resources by coercing Tennessee to accept refugees.

Slatery notes in the letter that the consulting issue already has been dismissed in federal court. He says the coerced spending issue is an untested legal theory that is unlikely to succeed. Continue reading →

Texas refugee lawsuit dismissed; Legislators pushing for TN lawsuit

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by Texas against resettlement of Syrian refugees within the state’s borders as some Tennessee lawmakers contend health concerns show the need for similar legal action as mandated by the Legislature in April.

“This Texas decision is a strong rebuke of efforts to block refugee resettlement,” said Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee in an email.

“It sends the clear message to other states that such attempts are not only un-American, they are contrary to the law and will fail in court. We continue to urge the state of Tennessee not to engage in litigation that contradicts our values and violates the law of the land,” she said.

State Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, on the other hand, said http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/06/16/tennessee-state-senate-leader-ag-must-act-without-delay-protect-public-health-risk-refugees/ declaring that 27 percent of refugees sent to Tennessee between 2011 and 2015 tested positive for latent tuberculosis infection shows a new justification for Tennessee filing a lawsuit over refugee resettlement in Tennessee.
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Blackburn renews push for ban on Syrian refugees

U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn took to the floor of the House of Representatives on Wednesday to make another push for a temporary ban on resettlement of Syrian refugees in the United States, reports WPLN. She cited the recent Orlando murders in her speech.

Blackburn has co-sponsored a measure with fellow Tennessee Rep. Scott DesJarlais that would cut off all funding for resettlement until Congress has approved the Obama administration’s plans.

The shooter in the Pulse nightclub massacre was born and raised in the United States; his parents were immigrants from Afghanistan. Authorities also say they have not found any evidence he was in contact with Islamic State, even though he’s reported to have declared his allegiance with the group.

Still, Blackburn says the case suggests Syrians shouldn’t be allowed into the U.S.

That’s because Omar Mateen was twice investigated by federal authorities based on tips he might become violent, but they found nothing.

“This reveals vetting is nearly impossible,” Blackburn says, “and it is one of the reasons … that we need to halt the migration of Syrian refugees until a proper process is in place.”

Supporters of refugee resettlement counter by arguing the process is already tough enough, frequently taking years to complete.

They also argue that it’s rare for a refugee to get involved in extremism.

More often it has been someone who was reared in the U.S. — like Mateen — that carries out an attack.

Norris grumbles to governor about refugee resolution rhetoric

State Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris has told Gov. Bill Haslam that he’s “troubled” and “uncomfortable with your mischaracterization” of legislation ordering legal action against the federal government over its refugee resettlement program in Tennessee.

From the Richard Locker report:

In a letter to Haslam on Monday, Norris, R-Collierville, took strong exception to the governor’s remarks on Friday about Senate Joint Resolution 467. Haslam declined to sign it, which has no practical effect other than signifying the governor’s position.

…In his letter, the senator wrote that he was troubled by the governor’s statement “and I am uncomfortable with your mischaracterization of this important resolution. First, as we have discussed, the resolution should not have been necessary in the first place. The attorney general should have acted on his own long before now.”

Despite legislative clamor during last year’s Syrian refugee crisis, Slatery did not try to block resettlement of refugees in the state. He issued an advisory opinion Nov. 30 that Tennessee cannot refuse to accept refugees the federal government has processed and admitted to the United States because “such a refusal would impinge on and conflict with the federal government’s authority to regulate the admission of aliens to the U.S. and thus would violate the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.”

Norris also wrote that the resolution “is not about ‘dismantling the Refugee Act’ as you said. It is about enforcing it.” He said Haslam’s safety and homeland security commissioner, Bill Gibbons, testified before a legislative committee in December that the federal government is not providing adequate information to the state regarding the refugees it’s sending to Tennessee.

“He recently confirmed that is still the case,” Norris wrote. “Alabama and Georgia have taken action. Why can’t Tennessee?”

Norris said one of the goals of the governor’s Public Safety Action Plan, released in January and cited in Haslam’s message on Friday, is to enhance the state’s ability to analyze information for links to terrorist activity, but that federal officials are not providing the information needed for such analysis even though the state has rights to such information under the Refugee Act.

“It is ironic that your administration appears reluctant to enforce those rights,” Norris wrote. “We also need to know who is resettled, where they are resettled, whether they have been property screened for contagious diseases like tuberculosis and measles, and whether they have been properly vaccinated.”

The governor’s press secretary, Jennifer Donnals, said later on Tuesday, “I’m sure the governor and Leader Norris will have a chance to talk about this at some point but the governor stands by his statement issued Friday.”

AP story on Haslam’s grumbling acquiescence to refugee lawsuit

By Erik Schelzig, Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Republican Gov. Bill Haslam has decided not to veto a resolution demanding a lawsuit be filed over the federal refugee resettlement program in Tennessee.

The governor announced Friday that despite his concerns about the measure, he was allowing it to go forward without his signature.

“I have constitutional concerns about one branch of government telling another what to do,” Haslam said in a written statement to lawmakers.

Haslam said he had asked state Attorney General Herbert Slatery to clarify whether lawmakers have the authority to hire outside attorneys to represent the state.

Sponsors of the resolution have said that the Thomas More Law Center in Michigan has agreed to represent the state on a refugee lawsuit free of charge if the attorney general declines to sue.
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Haslam won’t sign (but won’t veto) UT diversity cut, refugee lawsuit

News release/statement from the governor’s office:
Gov. Haslam today returned all of the remaining bills passed by the 109th General Assembly. He is returning SJR 467 without his signature and allowing HB 2248 to become law without his signature. Below are statements from the governor on both of those bills.

Refugee Resolution (returned unsigned)
SJR 467 directs the Attorney General to initiate legal action regarding refugee placements and authorizes the General Assembly to hire outside counsel in the event the Attorney General does not pursue action in this case. I trust the Attorney General to determine whether the state has a claim in this case or in any other, and I have constitutional concerns about one branch of government telling another what to do. I am returning SJR 467 without my signature and am requesting that the Attorney General clarify whether the legislative branch actually has the authority to hire outside counsel to represent the state.

I also question whether seeking to dismantle the Refugee Act of 1980 is the proper course for our state. Rather, I believe the best way to protect Tennesseans from terrorism is to take the steps outlined in my administration’s Public Safety Action Plan, which enhances our ability to analyze information for links to terrorist activity, creates a Cyber Security Advisory Council, restructures our office of Homeland Security, establishes school safety teams, and provides training for active shooter incidents and explosive device attacks.

Office for Diversity (returned unsigned)
I am letting HB 2248 become law without my signature. This bill received considerable debate and discussion during legislative session, and the final form of HB 2248 was revised so that its primary effect is to redirect administrative funding for the Office for Diversity and Inclusion for one year into scholarships for minority engineering students. Although I do not like the precedent of redirecting funds within a higher education institution’s budget, I find the ultimate outcome of the legislation less objectionable and am therefore letting it become law without my endorsement.

TN featured in AP report on migrant children barred from schools

By Garance Burke and Adrian Sainz, Associated Press
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Candelario Jimon Alonzo came to the U.S. dreaming of becoming something more than what seemed possible along the rutted roads of his hometown in Guatemala’s highlands. This was his chance: He could earn a U.S. high school education and eventually become a teacher.

Instead, the 16-year-old spends most days alone in the tumbledown Memphis house where he lives with his uncle, leaving only occasionally to play soccer and pick up what English he can from his friends.

Local school officials have kept Jimon out of the classroom since he tried to enroll in January. Attorneys say Jimon and at least a dozen other migrant youth fleeing violence in Central America have been blocked from going to Memphis high schools because officials contend the teens lacked transcripts or were too old to graduate on time.

The Associated Press has found that in at least 35 districts in 14 states, hundreds of unaccompanied minors from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have been discouraged from enrolling in schools or pressured into what advocates and attorneys argue are separate but unequal alternative programs — essentially an academic dead end, and one that can violate federal law.

Instead of enrolling Jimon and the other minors in high school, their cash-strapped district routed them to an adult school in East Memphis that offered English classes a few hours a week. But before Jimon could even register, the state shut the GED and English-language programs over concerns that few students were graduating, effectively ending his chances for a formal education.
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Legislature gives final OK to lawsuit on refugees in TN

By Sheila Burke, Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A resolution that would direct Tennessee to sue the federal government over its refugee resettlement program passed Tuesday in the state Legislature.

The measure (SJR467) was approved in the Senate after lawmakers agreed to a change that would allow a private law firm to file a lawsuit on behalf of Tennessee if the state attorney general refuses to sue. It stipulates that the use of the private firm could not cost taxpayers.

Texas and Alabama have sued the federal government over the refugee rights program.

The resolution was sponsored by Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, who is also speaker of the Senate.

Fears about refugee resettlement in Tennessee were heightened after last November’s terrorist attacks in Paris. Lawmakers have said the state has no say in the program, but Tennessee winds up paying for the costs for the education, health and other taxpayer-funded services provided to the refugees.

Immigrant and refugee rights advocates have said the legislation makes the state look unwelcoming and sends the wrong message. They have also said the true intention of the measure was to stop or limit Muslim refugee resettlement in Tennessee.

The state constitution would allow Gov. Bill Haslam to sign, not sign or veto the joint resolution, a spokesman for the governor said in an email.

It’s not clear what Haslam will do. The governor has previously raised concerns about “one branch of government ordering the attorney general what to do or the precedent that would be set by hiring an outside attorney to represent the state. And while Haslam has agreed that there are people who are coming into the country illegally who want to harm the U.S., he didn’t think they were coming under the refugee program.
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