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Displaced Syrian children who fled Turkish violence sit in a bus waiting to go to Dohuk, Iraq, Oct. 25, 2019. Carol Zimmermann (CNS photo/Ari Jalal, Reuters)
January 13, 2020
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON – Texas Catholic leaders were quick to take a stand against a Jan. 10 announcement by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott that the state would no longer resettle refugees.
The governor’s decision, announced in a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, makes Texas the first state to reject refugee resettlement after last year’s executive order by President Donald Trump requiring governors to publicly say if they would accept refugees after June 2020.
To date, governors in 42 states have said they will accept more refugees. Governors from five remaining states that accept refugees – Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi and South Carolina – have yet to respond to the Jan. 21 deadline.
Texas bishops responded individually on Twitter to the governor’s decision, urging him to reconsider. In a Jan. 10 statement, the Texas Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state’s bishops, said the move to “turn away refugees from the great state of Texas” was “deeply discouraging and disheartening.”
The conference said it “respects the governor” but said his decision in this case was “simply misguided” because it “denies people who are fleeing persecution, including religious persecution, from being able to bring their gifts and talents to our state and contribute to the general common good of all Texans.”
In his letter to Pompeo, Abbott, who is Catholic, emphasized the work Texas has done in welcoming refugees, saying that since fiscal year 2010 “more refugees have been received in Texas than any other state.”
“Texas has carried more than its share in assisting the refugee resettlement process and appreciates that other states are available to help with these efforts,” the letter said.
Ashley Feasley, director of policy for Migration and Refugee Services of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told Catholic News Service that Abbott’s decision is a “big deal” because the state has resettled 10% of refugees in the United States in the past 10 years.
She said the move does not mean that refugees can’t come to the state, but they cannot be resettled there.
That decision, she said is a problematic one. For starters, about 80% of the refugee cases are described as “follow to join,” meaning these refugees, whose cases have been vetted, are looking to join a family member or friend in the community. Allowing them to resettle with people they already know is a request that resettlement agencies try to honor, she said, because it helps with the adjustment.