Sheesh, where have I been.  I apologize if some of you notified me that Chris Christie withdrew New Jersey from the program earlier this month too (So sorry! I can’t read everything coming in to me!).

NJ withdraws too!  Check it out here at NJ 101.5!

Fifteen years ago, then-Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) gave an impassioned speech in support of refugee resettlement. He called helping and taking in refugees “some of the most noble and ennobling things we can do,” and said the United States should admit “substantially” more than 80,000 people, the ceiling at the time.

“I want to ensure that any refugee dealing with our system sees the best of who we are and what we represent,” he said at an event ahead of World Refugee Day in 2001. “We are a better nation because of the refugees and asylees amongst us.”

If refugees currently dealing with the system are going to see the best of America, though, it will be in spite of Brownback. Now governor of Kansas, he announced Tuesday that his state would no longer work with the federal government to resettle refugees, the final step in a months-long effort to keep out Syrians that now is directed toward refugees in general.

[….]

His decision won’t have a major impact on refugee resettlement to Kansas — although the governor has implied that he’s effectively banning the program in the state, all his withdrawal means is that another agency will have to coordinate the services for it to function in Kansas.  [Remember “services”=your financial support of refugees.—ed]

[….]

But Brownback’s shift was troubling for refugee resettlement groups.

Here we learn something we didn’t know about those regulations that the Office of Refugee Resettlement crafted from thin air (with no legislative authority!).

If a state does not participate, it must give the government 120 days notice and another agency will be tasked with coordinating assistance. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie withdrew his state from the program this month as well, citing concerns about Syrian refugees, and other states have elected in the past to participate only partially or not at all.

Christie gave the 120 day notice and presumably by August another agency (A NON-PROFIT GROUP) will be assigned the duty. We assume Governor Brownback also gave the official notice and thus both governors could sue the feds as per the Thomas More Law Center states’ rights case, and the State of Tennessee’s planned legal challenge.
Can the federal government and non-profit groups expend state and local tax dollars without any state or local say so, we think not!  Also, experts tell us there is no authority in the so-called Wilson-Fish amendment to the Refugee Act of 1980 to turn the program over to unelected private organizations.
Nevertheless, defiant advocates for more refugees for your towns and cities say that refugees will continue to get their services (code for welfare) and you will continue to pay!

That [resettlement] will continue, and they will continue to get services from the state. The four staffers in the Kansas Department for Children and Families currently working on refugee resettlement will be reassigned to other roles, but the overall work of the agency won’t change, department spokeswoman Theresa Freed said.

Lots more at the HuffPo here.  The media will try to make it sound like you think you can bar anyone from moving to a state.  This is America, you can’t bar the movement of people legally present.  This is about whether state and local taxpayers have any right to determine what they pay for and whether unelected private groups can carry out government functions of this nature.
Come to think of it, Governor Christie and Maryland Gov Larry Hogan are pals—maybe he can be persuaded to pull Maryland out as well!
A cautionary note:  We would all love to find a silver bullet to get this program either stopped completely or reformed, but it won’t be that simple. The 35-year-old refugee industry involves billions of dollars and entrenched non-profit groups, many with political agendas involving open borders and changing the demographic make-up of the country.  Therefore, do not hang your hat on lawsuits (as important as this one could be) and whether some Congressional white knight will come to the rescue, continue all you are doing at the grassroots level to bring attention to the program through whatever means possible (within the law of course!).

Go here and don’t forget to send in your testimony!  Tell your governors and other elected officials to go on the record too!