Reuters (Indiana)
February 29, 2016
A
U.S. judge on Monday blocked Indiana Governor Mike Pence's order
barring state officials from helping Syrian refugees resettle in the
state, saying it was discriminatory.
Pence
was among more than 25 U.S. governors, mostly Republicans, who called
on President Barack Obama to stop resettling refugees fleeing Syria's
civil war after November
attacks by militants in Paris that killed 130.
Governors
have cited concerns that some refugees could be associated with Islamic
State, which claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The
suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Exodus
Refugee Immigration Inc was among the first challenging governors' moves
to block resettlement.
"The
State’s conduct clearly discriminates against Syrian refugees based on
their national origin," U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt said in a
ruling granting the
preliminary injunction.
She
added that withholding federal grant money from Exodus did not advance
Indiana officials' assertions that they were barring refugees for safety
reasons.
Indiana
Attorney General Greg Zoeller plans to appeal the decision and will
seek a stay of Pratt's order, a spokesman for the attorney general's
office said in a statement.
The
ACLU had contended that decisions on immigration and refugee
resettlement were exclusively the province of the federal government and
could not be dictated by state
officials.
Indiana
had argued that Exodus, a nonprofit that gets federal money to resettle
refugees, lacked standing to assert refugees' rights.
The U.S. State Department said in November that a refugee
family that had been headed to Indiana was relocated to
Connecticut, but did not specify the family's country of origin.
After
the Paris attacks, the Obama administration stood by its pledge to
admit some 10,000 refugees to the United States over the following year.
Refugee
advocates have noted that candidates for resettlement go through
extensive background checks, taking up to two years, before reaching the
United States.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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