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Texas sues U.S. government over resettlement of Syrian refugees

Xinhua, December 3, 2015 Adjust font size:

The U.S. state of Texas sued on Wednesday the federal government over the resettlement of six Syrian refugees in Dallas, the third largest city of Taxas, this week.

The decision by the Republican-led Lone Star state was prompted the non-profit International Rescue Committee's plan to resettle the Syrian refugees in Dallas by Friday despite objection from Texas Governor Greg Abbott, according to local TV station ABC13.

The state said that when the committee chose to go ahead with the resettlement against Texas governor's wishes, it filed suit to try to block the move.

Texas, which has accepted more than 120 Syrian refugees since October 2014, has security concerns over accepting Syrian refugees and is seeking to delay the arrival of the six Syrian refugees for at least a week until a federal judge can hear the challenge.

"Instead of adhering to that statutory framework, the federal government and the committee have left Texas uniformed about refugees that could well pose a security risk to Texans and without any say in the process of resettling these refugees," the lawsuit said.

It added that U.S. President Barack Obama has granted a waiver to refugees who "provided material support to terrorists if, among other things, the support was 'insignificant' and the refugee 'poses no danger to the safety and security of the United States.'"

Texas asked the federal court to issue a declaratory judgement for the state saying the U.S. government and the committee breached the Refugee Act of 1980 by "preventing Texas from receiving vital information to assess the security risk posed by the refugees in advance of their arrival, and, refusing to consult with the state in advance on placement of refugees in Texas."

The Texas governor said earlier Wednesday that the State Department offered "absolutely no guarantees" about safety ahead of the arrival.

Texas said that it would refuse to cooperate with the resettlement of any Syrian refugees until further notice.

The U.S. government reportedly plans to accept 10,000 refugees from the war-torn Syria over the next year.

Like many Republican-led states, Texas refuses to admit more Syrian refugees. In an open letter to Obama in November, Abbot said that the state refused to accept more Syrian refugees to settle in the state in the wake of the bloody attacks in Paris. Endi