Tag Archives: Syrian refugees

Texas pulls out of refugee settlement program … more or less

October 2, 2016 kanelis2012

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has made a political statement, which of course is no surprise.

He has withdrawn the state from the federal refugee resettlement program.

Here’s the deal, though. The feds are going to keep sending refugees to Texas, where they might be resettled but only after they’ve been vetted thoroughly to ensure they aren’t part of some evil terrorist network.

All of this begs the question for Gov. Abbott: What is the point — precisely — of the “withdrawal” from the refugee resettlement initiative?

https://www.texastribune.org/2016/09/30/texas-officially-withdraws-refugee-resettlement-pr/

Abbott’s office cited security concerns. He doesn’t want terrorist infiltrating into Texas. Duh? Neither do I, nor anyone else, near as I can tell.

The feds, though, are running the Middle East refugees through a rigorous background check as it is … and no, we aren’t welcoming “hundreds of thousands” of refugees from the war-torn region, as GOP presidential nominee Donald J. Trump keeps insisting. President Obama announced a ceiling of 10,000 Syrian refugees, for example.

“Refugees will continue to be resettled in Texas only after extensive screenings are conducted by the State Department and Department of Homeland Security,” a spokesman for the Office of Refugee Resettlement said.

The fear campaign continues at full throttle, goosed by Trump and others who seek to terrorize Americans with the threat that we’re being invaded by throngs of crazed Islamic warriors bent on killing us all on sight.

Quite clearly, Gov. Abbott has accepted at least a version of that notion. It reminds me of when he ordered the National Guard to monitor the U.S. Army’s military exercise in Texas, apparently believing the garbage that the commander in chief might order a military takeover of Texas.

International news

Yes, Europeans are as astounded as many Americans … about Trump

September 18, 2016 kanelis2012

Nearly two weeks in Germany and The Netherlands have been entered into the memory book of our life together.

My wife and I spent some glorious time reconnecting with friends and taking in some of the most spectacular countryside either of us ever has seen.

I took a couple of small notebooks with me. I put them in a back pocket. I had intended to write a great deal about politics and policy while visiting with folks. I didn’t do nearly enough of it.

Our journey, though, did give me a couple of key observations about the state of the world as seen through the eyes of western Europeans.

Donald J. Trump’s rise to political power has them as astonished as many of us.

We met a few friends and colleagues of our German friends. “How do you feel about Trump?” a couple of them asked. I gave them my typical response: I do not understand this presidential campaign. More than one of them, knowing we were visiting from Texas, responded with, “How do you feel, then, living in a state where everyone is a Republican?” Not “everyone,” I reminded them.

Our Dutch friends are equally perplexed about Trump. They do not know what precisely this says about the state of American politics and policy — and they are fearful of what a Trump election would mean to the future of U.S.-Europe alliances.

Join the club, y’all!

The second takeaway?

Germans and Dutch appear to live side by side with Muslim immigrants.

While Trump and his minions offer hysterical responses to the plight of Muslim refugees, I witnessed a lot of Muslims doing business in places like Rothenberg, Germany and Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Women wore their hijabs to cover their hair. They mingled in marketplaces with their children in tow. I didn’t see any outward tension.

I am well aware of the rise of ultra-right-wing nationalism in Germany. I also am aware that not everyone in Europe is welcoming the refugees from Syria with open arms and hearts. But the refugees’ presence is quite noticeable and as we made our way through the communities we visited, I was taken aback — just a bit — by the absence of hysteria that some American politicians imply exists in that part of the world.

We’re home now. We’re glad to have enjoyed a marvelous adventure. In the past most of our international travel has involved something related to my previous life as a print journalist. This one was different. It was totally recreational.

However, I have difficulty throwing aside my tendency to look at the world through a reporter’s prism.

I do not intend to leave you with the impression that I learned all there is to learn about European geopolitical views. It’s just an observation I was able to glean from 11 days across The Pond.

Even so, I learned (a) that Europeans share many Americans’ disbelief in Trump’s rise and (b) that they appear to have a more reasonable and rational reaction to what Trump and others insist is an international crisis.

Go figure, man.

International news, national news, political news

There goes Gov. Johnson’s chance at election … probably

September 13, 2016 kanelis2012

Gary Johnson asked a question when someone posed one to him.

The question had to do with the largest city in Syria and the plight of those thousands of refugees fleeing Aleppo.

“What is Aleppo?” Johnson asked.

Seriously. That’s what the former New Mexico governor and Libertarian presidential candidate asked.

He’s embarrassed by it. More to the point, the non-answer and what ought to be perceived as a “stupid question” is now being seen as the doomsday death knell for Johnson’s presidential candidacy.

I’m trying to imagine the fallout that would have occurred if, say, Democrat Hillary Clinton had said such a thing. Or, if Republican Donald J. Trump had said it.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/09/08/if_aleppo_gaffe_sinks_johnson_will_trump_or_clinton_gain.html

Clinton would be excoriated by those on the right and shunned by those on the left.

Trump? I feel reasonably certain he would have been praised by the righties. Lefties, I’m sorry to presume, just might have thrown up their hands.

Back to Gov. Johnson.

There were many of us out here in the peanut gallery who wanted his candidacy to get some traction. It looks as though — at this moment — he has just taken a dive.

legal news, political news, State news

Always a political back story

December 10, 2015 kanelis2012

I am a strong believer in what the Founding Fathers intended by creating an independent federal judiciary.

They gave the president the authority to nominate federal judges for lifetime jobs, pending approval by the U.S. Senate. The intent, as I’ve always understood it, was to de-politicize the judicial branch of government.

It works.

Judge blocks order

Then again, politics always seems to be part of the subplot of every federal judicial decision.

U.S. District Judge David Godbey, for example, today struck down Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s ban on Syrian refugees coming to Texas. Paxton cited security concerns in asking for the temporary restraining order. Godbey ruled within hours of the request that Paxton had failed to demonstrate that the refugees posed any kind of threat.

Godbey wrote, according to the Texas Tribune: “The Court finds that the evidence before it is largely speculative hearsay,” the judge wrote. “The [state] has failed to show by competent evidence that any terrorists actually have infiltrated the refugee program, much less that these particular refugees are terrorists intent on causing harm.”

So, it’s fair to ask: Is this judge sitting on the federal bench because a liberal Democratic president, Barack Obama, appointed him? No. He was selected in 2003 by Republican President George W. Bush to serve the Northern District of Texas. Paxton, let’s point out, is a Republican as well.

Does it really matter, then, whether a judge gets picked by a Democrat or a Republican? It shouldn’t. Judges take an oath to uphold the Constitution without regard to political favor. They do, remember, have a lifetime job.

But the politics of this particular issue — the refugee crisis and the political debate swirling all over it — causes one to look carefully at who’s making these decisions.

Judge Godbey appears to have put the law above his political leanings.

International news, national news, political news, State news

Refugee fight pits states vs. the feds

November 23, 2015 kanelis2012

Just about any day now I expect some governor to declare that his or her state has the right to protect residents against foreigners, that the governor is preserving the “state’s right” to self-protection.

This might become the leading back story coming out of governors’ refusal to let Syrian refugees into their states.

But according to a University of Michigan law professor — not to mention constitutional scholars all over the place — the governors don’t have the authority to supersede federal law.

The bottom line, according to Richard Primus is this: “They can’t do it. The decision to admit a person to the United States belongs to the federal government exclusively. Once a person is legally admitted to the United States, she can live wherever she chooses. States don’t issue visas any more than they declare war. Indeed, putting foreign affairs under the firm control of one central government was one of the primary motivations of the Founders in creating the Constitution in the first place.”

Primus argues, though, that governors resisting the feds — such as what Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has done fairly routinely — makes good politics, even though it runs directly counter to what the law allows.

Primus writes that the states do have some say in refugee resettlement: “That’s not to say governors are totally powerless to shape the flow of refugees. There are things states can do to make themselves less attractive destinations. Most refugees need help getting their lives restarted—housing, language education, employment leads, and other social services. A fair amount of that resettlement work is run through state social-service agencies with the support of federal dollars. The states are the one with the boots on the ground in education, housing, and so forth—and they could simply decide not to take the federal money and not to provide resettlement services. Several governors have actually taken this line, saying that they’ll cease providing resettlement assistance.”

But to declare categorically that Syrians — or any other foreigner — cannot come to this country? That’s the federal government’s call.

International news, national news, political news

WW II internment camps serve as justification?

November 20, 2015 kanelis2012

This takes the cake.

Of all the things that have been said in recent days about Syrian refugees and whether the United States should ban any more of them from coming to this country, the mayor of a significant U.S. city invokes the memory of … Japanese-American internment camps.

Roanoke (Va.) Mayor David Bowers, a Democrat, said this: “I’m reminded that President Franklin D. Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it appears that the threat of harm to America from Isis now is just as real and serious as that from our enemies then.”

Oh, my.

The internment of Japanese-Americans after the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941 — over the course of history — been declared a national tragedy. Yes, FDR felt compelled to order the internment of those loyal Americans out of fear of what he thought might happen. It was in fact a xenophobic response aimed at imprisoning people of a certain racial minority. The U.S. government did not respond in nearly that fashion to German-Americans or Italian-Americans, whose own ethnic ancestors also had declared war on the United States.

Now we have the mayor of Roanoke suggesting that the internment camps justify the near-panic being expressed in many political corners of this country in response to what occurred this past week in Paris with the massacre of 129 innocent victims by European jihadists.

I should add that many decades after the internment of tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans the U.S. government issued a formal apology to the descendants of those who were held captive by their own government. The actions taken then are now considered a shameful breach of our Constitution’s guarantee of civil liberties for all its citizens.

The ACLU of Virginia issued this statement: “The government’s denial of liberty and freedom to over 100,000 individuals of Japanese descent — many of whom were citizens or legal residents and half of whom were children — is a dark stain on America’s history that Mayor Bowers should learn from rather than seek to emulate.”

Mayor Bowers has said he never intended to offend anyone with his remarks.

Well, Mr. Mayor, you damn sure did.

See story here.

International news

Rooting out potential danger remains most challenging

November 19, 2015 kanelis2012

Surely you remember this guy, but if not, here’s the answer.

His name was Mohammad Atta. He hailed from Egypt. But in the spring or early summer of 2001 he made his way to the United States. He then received lessons from instructors who taught him how to fly a commercial jetliner.

Atta didn’t receive any instruction on takeoff or landing; just how to control a massive airplane in mid-flight.

Then on Sept. 11, 2001, he and about 18 other men hijacked four jetliners. Atta seized control of one of them and flew it into one of the World Trade Center towers in New York City. Another jet crashed into the second tower, the third jet crashed into a Pennsylvania field while passengers fought with hijackers. The fourth jetliner crashed into the Pentagon.

You know what happened after that.

What’s the point?

We’ve grown anxious about how we can find terrorists before they commit terrible deeds. Mohammad Atta and his gang of merciless thugs managed 14 years ago to slip undetected through U.S. security systems. Atta received and several of his fellow monsters received flying lessons of the nature I described here — without causing anyone to raise a red flag of alarm!

Making sure we detect evil among us is difficult and tedious work. Do we overreact and ban everyone who seeks to flee repression and bloodshed, which many thousands of them are doing at this moment in Syria?

Yes, we’ve long needed to secure ourselves against those committed to evil deeds. This need pre-dates by a very long time the events of just the past few days, weeks or months.

Indeed, the threat has existed all along.

Still, we have welcomed refugees who seek deliverance from misery. Check out this blog post from Texas Monthly. It speaks to a long-standing Texas tradition.

Why haven’t we panicked long ago?

Mohammad Atta gave us ample reason, didn’t he?

International news, national news, political news, State news

Gov. Abbott slams door on Syrian refugees

November 16, 2015 kanelis2012

Honestly, I have a measure of sympathy for what Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has declared with regard to refugees from Syria.

He has informed President Obama that Texas won’t accept any refugees from the nation they are fleeing. Why? One individual who entered France as a “refugee” reportedly was part of the attack force that terrorized Paris this past week, killing 129 people and injuring hundreds more.

Abbott doesn’t want to take any chances by allowing Syrians into this state. He joins the governors of Alabama and Michigan in banning Syrian refugees.

On the other hand, I believe it is fair to ask: Is this what the United States of America stands for?

An Austin immigration lawyer told the Texas Tribune that Abbott’s order is legal, but questions whether it is right.

“Given the tragic attacks in Paris and the threats we have already seen, Texas cannot participate in any program that will result in Syrian refugees — any one of whom could be connected to terrorism — being resettled in Texas,” Abbott wrote to President Obama.

I get that. But aren’t there intense security measures a state such as Texas can take screen all applicants coming here from Syria to ensure that they do not have any ties to the Islamic State, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah … or any sinister terrorist organization?

Here’s more from the Tribune: “House Speaker Joe Straus on Monday took a more nuanced position, saying he agreed with Abbott’s ‘concern’ and that refugees needed “thorough background reviews” in order to be placed in Texas. ‘I share Gov. Abbott’s concern that relocating refugees to Texas without thorough background reviews compromises our security,’ Straus said in an emailed statement. ‘Our highest priority as a state has been and should continue to be the safety of all Texans.’”

Virtually all the refugees coming here are fleeing terror, murder, warfare, mayhem, bloodshed. You name it, they’re seeking to escape that misery. What is to become of them? Do we send them to other states? Do we — as Donald Trump suggests — send them back to the chaos they are fleeing?

We proclaim ourselves to live in the Land of Opportunity. We profess our nation to be a bastion for the dispossessed.

Of course no one wants to create a safe haven for terrorist monsters. What, though, does the world do with those who deserve protection from those who would kill them?

High Plains Blogger