A nonprofit organization that resettles refugees in the United States says it will move forward with the placement of Syrian refugees in Texas, despite warnings from officials in the Lone Star State not to do so.
The New York-based International Rescue Committee said in a Monday letter to Texas health and human services chief Chris Traylor that its Dallas affiliate would continue to provide resettlement assistance to all refugees “who have been admitted lawfully to the United States.”
The nonprofit had received a letter earlier on Monday from Traylor urging the International Rescue Committee’s Dallas branch to discontinue resettling Syrian refugees or risk losing its state contract “and other legal action.” The International Rescue Committee – one of about 20 nonprofits that have a state contract to resettle refugees in Texas — had previously informed the state that it would resettle two families in the Dallas area in early December. Both families have relatives in North Texas, the nonprofit said.
See here for the background, here for the letter from HHSC to refugee groups, here for the IRC’s response letter to the HHSC, and here for their public statement. I’ve said before that I have a hard time believing that Greg Abbott would go to the mat against faith-based organizations like the IRC, but these are the time we live in. The next question is how much company the IRC will have in litigation against the state of Texas, if indeed it does come to that.
At least 242 Syrian refugees have been resettled in Texas since 2012. That number is relatively small for Texas — a hotbed for refugee resettlement — but the count of Syrian refugees was expected to increase significantly in the next year as the United States prepares to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees.
At least one other resettlement nonprofit, Catholic Charities of Dallas, had said it would continue to provide resettlement assistance to Syrian refugees. But as of Monday afternoon, that organization had not received a letter from the state similar to the one received by the International Rescue Committee, a Catholic Charities spokeswoman said.
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The Texas Health and Human Services Commission was unable to provide a list of resettlement nonprofits that have agreed not to assist Syrian refugees.
At least two such nonprofits in Texas say they haven’t made a decision about whether to continue settling Syrian refugees.
A spokeswoman for Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston said in a statement that it had not received a letter from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, “so no final determination has been made regarding our next steps for resettling Syrian refugees.”
Likewise, Refugee Services of Texas had not received a letter from the state about Syrian refugees, said Aaron Rippenkroeger, the president and CEO. The organization plans to “seek guidance on the ramifications” of federal and state requirements,” he said in a statement.
The more organizations that stand with the IRC, the harder I think it will be for Abbott to follow through. There’s got to be a way to ease up and find a compromise, but I have no faith that Abbott wants to do that. TFN Insider has more.
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