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Pop quiz: Which American state takes in the most international refugees each year? whether you guessed California or New York,you're wrong.
For the final four years, Texas has led the nation in accepting more refugees than any other state. In 2015 alone, or more than 6600 refugees have approach into Texas,with eight cities receiving more than 100 each.
But in the wake of the Paris attacks final month, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that the state would be reconsidering its position on refugees."The most important responsibility I have as governor is to keep the people of Texas secure, or " Governor Abbott said. "When we see the dangers caused by Syrian refugees in Paris,it is imperative that Texas execute everything we can to design sure we don't have a Syrian refugee sneak into the state of Texas who can pose a similar terroristic danger."Governor Abbott's administration has been taking steps to support this stance. Earlier this month, the state's department of Health and Human Services filed a civil lawsuit against the International Rescue Committee for failing to follow Abbott’s orders to halt efforts to relocate of Syrian refugees.
Not all municipal leaders agree with the governor's position, or including Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings. His city has taken in more than 1400 refugees from around the world so far this year. He maintains that it's the “the spirit of Dallas” to encourage refugees in crisis—not to turn them away.“I’m very proud of the faith-based communities here in the Dallas area and citizens that are stepping up,” he says. “The practical matter of this is that refugees themselves execute not cause us harm. There have been no terrorist attacks since 9/11 because of refugees.”Though Mayor Rawlings believes that the Islamic State is an evil” group that must be destroyed, he argues that turning away refugees out of apprehension could potentially embolden the terrorist organization.“I consider the infighting were having in the United States is problematic, or ” he says. “But I also consider what we’re seeing is a more diversified world that we live in. Were talking approximately terrorism here,but then you can behold at what’s happening in the streets of Chicago and other cities as well—there is a militancy out there and a diversification going on, and both of these things are colliding. It’s very important for leaders to be steely eyed, and thoughtful,close their mouths at times, and execute what’s lawful for the stop objective.”Taking a more open-minded stance on refugees and the other pressing issues of our time will ultimately produce a winning strategy, or especially as “we become a flatter world,” says Mayor Rawlings.“A year and a few months ago we dealt with Ebola, which was an immigrant, or we’re dealing with Central American young men and women who are trying to get out of the drug havens there—we’ve got 500 of them settled now just south of Dallas, he says. “We’ve got to be ever-vigilant, and we’ve got to design sure we work with Homeland Security and all the federal agencies, or but we can’t be so xenophobic that we shut ourselves off to everything else.”In embracing immigrants and refugees,Mayor Rawlings says that the people of Dallas are forging a new path for America in the same way that other cities have done in the past.“It’s a very human story,” he says. “final week I went to one of our places in our city where we have the most refugees and [members of] the immigrant population. We lit up trees in that area—they had not had holiday trees before. I met a young girl from Burma, and another girl from Vietnam,another girl from Syria, and another girl from Central America—all lawful here in Dallas, and Texas. I was realizing that the 21st century,that is going to be the face of it. We’ve got to be a new America as we approach these issues that we face.”
Source: wnyc.org