Carsten Rehder/DPA via ZUMA Press
On Monday, as more than a dozen mostly Republican governors pledged to block Syrian refugees from being resettled in their states, the State Department was mum about the legal ramifications, offering only a cautious statement that its lawyers were looking into it. By Tuesday, apparently, that review had been completed.
“This is a federal program carried out under the authority of federal law and refugees arriving in the United States are protected by the Constitution and federal law,” a senior State Department official told reporters on a conference call, when asked about the governors’ statements. Simply put, once a refugee has come to the United States, “he or she is also free to move anywhere in the country,” just like anyone else. And there’s nothing Bobby Jindal or Chris Christie can do about it.
But, the official was quick to point out, the government also wasn’t interested in resettling refugees unilaterally. Although state and local governments have only a consultative role in the process, “this is a program that is very much dependent on the support of local communities” to make the adjustment to a new life work—picking a new arrival up at the airport, furnishing a new house, finding gainful employment, and providing access to health care. And in that respect, the governors’ strongest bargaining chip might be their open hostility. “We don’t want to send refugees anywhere where they would not be welcomed.”
