Democrat governors representing red states such as Kentucky, North Carolina, Montana, and Kansas have approved more refugee resettlement in 2020 for their states.
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 the resettlement of refugees in their communities.
The newly-elected Democrat Governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear, has formally asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to continue resettling refugees into the state. Likewise, Democrat governors such as Steve Bullock, Roy Cooper, and Laura Kelly representing red states such as Montana, North Carolina, and Kansas have approved more refugees for resettlement.
“North Carolina was one of the first states to welcome refugees to the United States after the United States Refugee Act was signed into law in 1980,” Cooper wrote in his letter to Pompeo, asking for more refugee resettlement. “Our state has a strong network of community and faith-based groups which aid in the resettlement of refugees who seek safety from persecution.”
Also asking for more refugees is Republican Governor of Iowa, Kim Reynolds, joining Republican governors Bill Lee of Tennessee, Doug Ducey of Arizona, Doug Burgum of North Dakota, and Gary Herbert of Utah.
For months, organizations with ties to billionaire George Soros have carried out a pressure campaign on Republican governors, who have readily caved, to ask that refugees continue being resettled. Likewise, in states like Iowa and North Dakota, the big business lobby and donors have continuously claimed they need more refugees to fill jobs.
Refugee contractors have a vested interest in making sure as many refugees are resettled across the U.S. as possible because their annual federally-funded budgets are contingent on the number of refugees they resettle. Those refugee contractors include:
Church World Service (CWS), Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC), Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM), Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), International Rescue Committee (IRC), U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS), U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and World Relief Corporation (WR).
The federally mandated refugee resettlement program has brought more than 718,000 refugees to the U.S. since January 2008 — a group larger than the entire state population of Wyoming, which has 577,000 residents. In the last decade, about 73,000 refugees have been resettled in California, 71,500 resettled in Texas, nearly 43,000 resettled in New York, and more than 36,000 resettled in Michigan.
Refugee resettlement costs American taxpayers nearly $9 billion every five years, according to the latest research. Over the course of five years, an estimated 16 percent of all refugees admitted will need housing assistance paid for by taxpayers.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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