So what!
The feds will do what they want to do as most Republican governors have figured out already. And, since Trump’s State Department is still being run by the pro-more-refugees bureaucrats, does anyone really think they will give a ‘rats rear end’ about the wishes of a governor from a former (gasp!) Confederate state.
And, one more thing (or maybe two!)… I wish these state pols would learn more about the program. First, we don’t take refugees from Yemen (maybe a tiny handful over the years) and most Iranians coming are Christians. Then consider the countries of great concern for sending potential troublemakers—Afghanistan, Iraq and Burma—which are not among the six!
I just told you yesterday that we are increasingly bringing devout Muslim Rohingya people from Burma, and they could go to SC rather than a Christian Iranian family!
Most of these governors get snookered (by DOS bureaucrats) because they get some low level staffers to do the research and frankly they couldn’t possibly understand or imagine the tricks the feds and the contractors will pull.
On the plus side, I guess I can say that the governor’s statement at least sends a media message.
Also, new readers should know that your state prepares ‘plans’ for how your state will handle refugees and you can contact your state coordinator (find them here, but contact list is 2 years old) and ask for your state’s plan. Don’t expect anything more than a mealy-mouthed bureaucratic document, but you might find a bombshell, so do it.
From the Post and Courier (hat tip: Joanne):
COLUMBIA — Gov. Henry McMaster has requested the federal government no longer resettle refugees in South Carolina from the six countries targeted by President Donald Trump’s travel ban.
The request comes in an annual plan each state submits to the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in the Department of Health and Human Services laying out how the refugee programs are administered in the state. [By the way, ORR doesn’t choose the refugees, the UN does with the Dept.of State and DHS—ed]
Citing concerns with the vetting process for refugees from areas the Trump administration has identified as terrorism hotbeds, the fiscal year 2018 request from South Carolina’s Department of Social Services asks the federal government to block refugees from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from being directed to the Palmetto State.
[….]
McMaster first publicized the request in a speech Monday night in Anderson at U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan’s annual Faith & Freedom BBQ fundraiser.
He explained that governors cannot stop the State Department from resettling refugees but said “we can voice our opinion on what we would like to do and not like to do.”
“We’ve got nothing against refugees,” McMaster said. “They’re facing all sorts of turmoil and problems.”
But pointing to the ongoing threat of “terrorists in the world,” the governor went on to tell the crowd ….
The crowd (the Republican voters!) will think the gov is protecting them and instead the feds will send them those Afghanis, Iraqis and Burmese Rohingya (probably snickering as they do it!) which cannot be thoroughly screened any more than Somalis or Syrians can.
