Texas became the first state to announce it will opt out of a federal refugee resettlement program in 2020 – a decision made possible by an executive order by President Trump.
The move drew a reaction from U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat and Somali immigrant who earlier in the week decried a similar move by county-level officials in her home state of Minnesota that was also facilitated by Trump’s order.
In a letter Friday to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, argued that his state has already done “more than its fair share” in resettling refugees and “continues to have to deal with the consequences of an immigration system that Congress has failed to fix.”
“With silent lips. ‘Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.’”
These are the words that welcomed me and millions of refugees.
I still believe in those values.
We shall overcome ✊🏽 https://t.co/DNdPa9CavV— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 11, 2020
Since the 2010 fiscal year, “more refugees have been received in Texas than in any other state” and in the past decade roughly 10 percent of all refugees resettled in the U.S. have been placed in Texas, Abbott wrote.
In addition, he pointed out that, according to federal numbers, about 100,000 migrants have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border into Texas since May 2018. He also stated that in the 2018 fiscal year, Border Patrol agents apprehended migrants from China, Iran, Kenya, Russia and Tonga. – READ MORE