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Abbott Shows Support for Cruz's Proposed Refugee Legislation

Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Texas Governor Greg Abbott

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was joined by Gov. Greg Abbott in Washington Tuesday to support his congressional efforts that place a moratorium on resettling refugees in the U.S.  Cruz’s legislation would also give governors the authority to halt the relocation of refugees.
 
Immediately following President Obama’s announcement that the U.S. would continue to take in Syrian refugees following the ISIS-led attacks in Paris, Abbott issued a directive to refugee resettlement groups that they should not accept any more Syrian refugees, asserting that governors are given this authority. When that authority was challenged by federal authorities, Abbott solicited Cruz’s help.
 
“And in short order Senator Cruz's office was able to put together a bill that would empower states and governors to have even more tools to address the refugee challenges that the states are having.”
 
One of the bills would actually provide governors the authority to shut down their state borders to refugees who may have a questionable FBI background check. Another one of Cruz’s bills would place a 3-year moratorium on the resettlement of any refugee coming from a country that has significant territories occupied by foreign terrorist.
 
“This is legislation that is targeted directly to the problem and the reason is simple we have been told by the FBI they cannot vet these individuals and our first obligation should be national security.”
 
In the meantime, Abbott says Texas will continue to maintain its lawsuit against the federal government to block the resettlement of Syrian refugees.  The state backed down from its request for a temporary restraining order on the resettlement of two Syrian families.  Texas is set to receive 21 refugees from Syria by the end of the week.

Ryan started his radio career in 2002 working for Austin’s News Radio KLBJ-AM as a show producer for the station's organic gardening shows. This slowly evolved into a role as the morning show producer and later as the group’s executive producer.