
State Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver (R-Lancaster), the daughter of a refugee from Yugoslavia who came to the United States in 1952 as a twelve-year-old, wants the Tennessee General Assembly to step up if Governor Bill Haslam fails to launch a constitutional challenge to the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program.
by Michael Patrick Leahy14 Dec 2015, 10:00 AM PST0

GOP presidential contender Sen. Ted Cruz is pushing his State Refugee Security Act of 2015 (S. 2363), now before the United States Senate for formal consideration.
by Michael Patrick Leahy8 Dec 2015, 2:30 PM PST0

The constitutional argument is that the federal government, without the permission of these 12 Wilson-Fish states, has “commandeered” state funds by placing refugees in their states, thereby obligating states to pay Medicaid expenses for the refugees, in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, which states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
by Michael Patrick Leahy8 Dec 2015, 6:25 AM PST0

Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Haslam is apparently off the list of possible plaintiffs—governors of the 12 “Wilson-Fish alternative program” states where non-profit VOLAGS, not state governments, run the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program—the Thomas More Law Center says it is looking to represent in a constitutional legal challenge to the program.
by Michael Patrick Leahy5 Dec 2015, 1:17 PM PST0

The Thomas More Law Center, a well respected public interest law firm, is ready to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the $1 billion a year U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program and is looking for a governor to be the plaintiff in a case that can be filed on short notice.
by Michael Patrick Leahy3 Dec 2015, 2:43 PM PST0

Though they are officially “non-profit” organizations, Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services, and several other Christian organizations are profiting from lucrative contracts with the federal government to resettle refugees in the United States. Of the 100,000 refugees resettled in the United States in 2014 under the Refugee Resettlement program, an estimated 40 percent were Muslims.
by Michael Patrick Leahy29 Nov 2015, 3:59 PM PST0