Thursday, December 3, 2015

Texas sues feds over plans to resettle Syrian refugees


Texas filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the federal government in an effort to block six Syrian refugees from resettling in Dallas this week.
The lawsuit comes after the International Rescue committee, a nonprofit group, said it would place Syrian refugees in Texas over the objections of Gov. Greg Abbot.
Texas hopes to delay the arrival of the refugees at least for a week until a federal judge can hear the challenge. The state said in the lawsuit that the IRC and the federal government have left Texas “uninformed about refugees that could well pose a security risk to Texans.”
The White House has said states don’t have the authority to block refugees. The IRC, which was also named in the suit has noted that Syrian refugees are the most security-vetted group of people who come into the U.S. The Obama administration has said the vetting process is thorough and can take up to two years.
“We have been working diligently with the (IRC) to find a solution that ensures the safety and security for all Texans, but we have reached an impasse and will not let the courts decide,” Texas Health and Human Services Commission spokesman Bryan Black told the Dallas Morning-News.
Abbot is among more than two dozen governors who have vowed since the November Paris terror attacks to keep Syrian refugees from resettling in their states, expressing fears that militants could plan a terror attack and enter the country under the guise of a refugee. Since the attacks, about 200 refugees have settled in the U.S., including in states where governors have resisted, according to the State Department.
The IRC was threatened with a lawsuit by Texas last week. The group said Monday it will still help all refugees in accordance with its obligations under federal guidelines. Texas responded Tuesday with a moratorium on resettlements until the state received “all information” on Syrians scheduled to arrive in Texas during the next three months. Texas also urged the State Department in a letter to give them more information about the “effectiveness of the screening procedures.”
In a statement issued Wednesday night, the IRC said it "has worked in coordination with Texas officials for 40 years — to the benefit of Texas communities and the refugees we serve. Refugees are victims of terror, not terrorists, and the families we help have always been welcomed by the people of Texas. The IRC acts within the spirit and letter of the law, and we are hopeful that this matter is resolved soon."
The Justice Department said it would review the complaint after formally receiving it. The White House declined to comment.
IRC spokeswoman Lucy Carrigan has said that two Syrian families are expected to arrive in Texas in the next 10 days, including the six who are noted in the lawsuit.
Texas currently takes in more refugees than any other state, including about 240 Syrian refugees since 2011. The Dallas Morning-News reports this is the first legal action by a state to block Syrian refugees.
The Refugee Act of 1980 dictates that refugee resettlement within the United States is managed by the federal government. State refugee coordinators are consulted by the federal government and the nine refugee resettlement agencies that have contracts with the government, but that consultation is largely to ensure refugees are settled in cities with adequate jobs, housing and social services.
Federal courts — including the U.S. Supreme Court — have upheld that immigration and admission of noncitizens to the United States is a federal responsibility and one managed wholly by the federal government.

Carson tumbles, Rubio rises and Trump still on top in new national GOP poll


A new poll released Wednesday shows Dr. Ben Carson falling to third place in the race for the Republican 2016 nomination, while Florida Senator Marco Rubio surges into second – but still a significant distance behind frontrunner Donald Trump, who holds a comfortable lead.
The Quinnipiac University National Poll shows Trump leading with 27 percent of Republican voters, while Rubio moves into second place with 17 percent. Carson, who was in a virtual tie with Trump in a Quinnipiac poll taken last month, finds his support dropping to 16 percent, now tied with Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
In October, Carson polled at 23 percent, just shy of Trump’s 24 percent. In a Quinnipiac poll taken at the end of September, Carson polled at 17 percent – putting him in second place at that time.
Meanwhile Rubio's numbers show a steady increase from the 9 percent he received in September, and 14 percent he received last month.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush still finds his support in single digits, polling at just 5 percent, while no other candidate tops 3 percent.
“It doesn’t seem to matter what he says or who he offends, whether the facts are contested or the ‘political correctness’ is challenged, Donald Trump seems to be wearing Kevlar,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.
In the race for the Democratic nomination, frontrunner Hillary Clinton widened her lead over Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. The poll finds Clinton beats Sanders 60-30 percent, a significant boost over her 53-35 lead in the November poll.
In good news for the Democrats, the poll finds that in a general election matchup, Clinton beats Trump 47-41 percent, ties with Rubio, beats Carson 46-43 percent, and tops Cruz 47-42 percent.

Panic city: The GOP's pipsqueak 'revolt' against Donald Trump



Another day, another GOP panic.
The media underestimated Donald Trump from day one. The Republican power brokers underestimated Donald Trump from day one. And now journalists are quoting GOP hotshots as suddenly scared about what has been obvious for months: that Trump is in a strong position to seize their nomination.
After various stages of grief and denial, the noise from the “establishment”—or what remains of it, in this Super PAC era—is growing louder.
The New York Times is the latest to sound the alarm:
“Irritation is giving way to panic as it becomes increasingly plausible that Mr. Trump could be the party’s standard-bearer and imperil the careers of other Republicans.”
Which is pretty much the same P-word that the Washington Post used on Nov. 12:
“Less than three months before the kickoff Iowa caucuses, there is growing anxiety bordering on panic among Republican elites about the dominance and durability of Donald Trump and Ben Carson and widespread bewilderment over how to defeat them.”
Is there something stronger than panic? Because we seem to be careening there.
And remember the pundits who said that Trump’s insistence that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated on 9/11, and his mocking of a reporter, would hurt him? Instead, he’s going up in the polls. Trump leads with 27 percent in the new Quinnipiac survey, trailed by Marco Rubio (17), Ted Cruz (16), and the sliding Ben Carson (16).
The GOP-in-revolt stories lead to endless speculation about a brokered convention or money men financing a stop-Trump venture, which is fun but ultimately pointless. One such anti-Trump outfit has gained little traction after being touted in the Wall Street Journal.
The notion that some aerial assault is going to badly wound Trump looks like a fantasy. According to NBC’s estimates, including Super PACs, Jeb Bush has spent $28.9 million on advertising—and his numbers have not budged at all. Marco Rubio has spent $10.6 million. John Kasich has spent $6.4 million, some of it on spots attacking Trump.
And The Donald has spent a grand total of $217,000, all on radio. Trump hasn’t aired a single TV ad. He gets all the free media he needs.
I’ve critiqued presidential ads in five campaigns, and I’ve never seen a cycle where they mattered less. With so many candidates and so many PACs and so many online videos, it just all seems like noise. That could change when the field winnows, but I don’t think you stop Donald Trump by airing bad things about him. The media say plenty of bad things about him, and it invariably ends up helping him.
Some are adjusting to the new era. In a Robert Costa scoop, the Post obtained a memo from the director of the National Republican Senatorial Campaign urging candidates to embrace the best parts of Trump’s “anti-Washington populist agenda,” but avoid saying “wacky things about women.” The memo suggests Trumpism without Trump, calling him “a misguided missile” who “is subject to farcical fits.”
The Times’ Jonathan Martin is savvy enough to recognize that the purported revolt lacks any real firepower: “In a party that lacks a true leader or anything in the way of consensus — and with the combative Mr. Trump certain to scorch anyone who takes him on — a fierce dispute has arisen about what can be done to stop his candidacy and whether anyone should even try.
“That has led to a standoff of sorts: Almost everyone in the party’s upper echelons agrees something must be done, and almost no one is willing to do it.”
The story quotes some party bigwigs on the record as saying a Trump nomination could endanger some GOP members of Congress. Ohio Republican Chairman Matt Borges says: “If he carries this message into the general election in Ohio, we’ll hand this election to Hillary Clinton — and then try to salvage the rest of the ticket.” So that’s what is really fueling the panic.
Trump’s detractors point to his high negatives, especially among minorities. But in such a crazy year, and with Trump taking moderate positions on Medicare, Social Security and taxing hedge-fund guys, who knows what would happen in a fall election? The Q poll gives Hillary a 6-point lead over The Donald, hardly a blowout.
But first he’s got to win the nomination. And that may well turn on his own performance and his ability to get his supporters to the polls, not on a party revolt that no one wants to lead or has the clout to pull off.

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