Exclusive: Memo Reveals How GOP Governors are Pitching Refugee Resettlement to Opponents
Hundreds of people gather in front of U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer's Brooklyn apartment to protest the migrant detention facilities on July 02, 2019 in New York City. Across the country tens of thousands of people are gathering for "Close the Camps' protests to voice their anger at the Trump administration's …Spencer Platt/Getty Facing backlash, Republican governors are pitching refugee resettlement to opponents as a close cooperation between state officials and refugee contractors who are tasked with resettling refugees.
For Fiscal Year 2020, President Donald Trump will continue cutting refugee admissions by reducing former President Barack Obama’s refugee inflow by at least 80 percent. This reduction would mean a maximum of 18,000 refugees can be resettled in the U.S. between October 1, 2019, and September 30, 2020. This is merely a numerical limit and not a goal federal officials are supposed to reach.
Coupled with the refugee reduction, Trump signed an executive order that gives localities, counties, and states veto power over whether they want to resettle refugees in their communities.
Already, a total of 18 Republican governors have signed off on plans to resettle more refugees in their states and have given various recent interviews to defend their decision against opposition from residents and local communities.
Behind the scenes, an internal memo to state legislators from Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) — one of those 18 governors — reveals how refugee resettlement is being pitched to opponents, mostly as a close cooperation between the state and refugee contractors, though the federal government gives nearly exclusive control of the issue to the State Department and the contractors they fund with American taxpayer money. https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/01/09/gop-governors-try-to-fend-off-refugee-opposition/