A total of 17 Republican governors thus far have approved more refugee resettlement for their states, along with five Democrat governors who govern red states.
For Fiscal Year 2020, President Donald Trump will continue cutting refugee admissions by reducing former President Barack Obama’s refugee inflow by at least 80 percent. This reduction would mean a maximum of 18,000 refugees can be resettled in the U.S. between October 1, 2019, and September 30, 2020. This is merely a numerical limit and not a goal federal officials are supposed to reach.
Coupled with the refugee reduction, Trump signed an executive order that gives localities, counties, and states veto power over whether they want to resettle refugees in their communities.
To date, these Republican governors in 17 states have asked the Trump administration to continue resettling refugees in their states:
- Mike DeWine of Ohio
- Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas
- Kim Reynolds of Iowa
- Charlie Baker of Massachusetts
- Gary Herbert of Utah
- Doug Burgum of North Dakota
- Chris Sununu of New Hampshire
- Doug Ducey of Arizona
- Eric Holcomb of Indiana
- Bill Lee of Tennessee
- Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma
- Pete Ricketts of Nebraska
- Kristi Noem of South Dakota
- Jim Justice of West Virginia
- Mike Parson of Missouri
- Brad Little of Idaho
- Larry Hogan of Maryland
Swing state Democrat governors like Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, Tony Evers of Wisconsin, and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan — all states that voted for Trump in the 2016 presidential election — have approved more refugees. Similarly, a handful of red-state Democrat governors have signed off on more refugee resettlement, including:
- Steve Bullock of Montana
- Laura Kelly of Kansas
- John Bel Edwards of Louisiana
- Roy Cooper of North Carolina
- Andy Beshear of Kentucky
Another 14 Democrat governors of blue states, such as Gavin Newsom of California and Ned Lamont of Connecticut, have asked the federal government to resettle more refugees in their states.
Already, in red states, governors are facing backlash from constituents who oppose bringing more immigration to their local towns, communities, and neighborhoods, as they often are forced to offset the costs of public services and welfare.
As Breitbart News exclusively reported, in Tennessee, Bill Lee is set to be challenged by a number of counties that are considering passing a resolution rebuking his pro-refugee resettlement decision.
For months, organizations with ties to billionaire George Soros have carried out a pressure campaign on Republican governors, who have readily caved, to ask that refugees continue being resettled. Likewise, in states like Iowa and North Dakota, the big business lobby and donors have continuously claimed they need more refugees to fill jobs.
Refugee contractors have a vested interest in making sure as many refugees are resettled across the U.S. as possible because their annual federally-funded budgets are contingent on the number of refugees they resettle. Those refugee contractors include:
Church World Service (CWS), Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC), Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM), Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), International Rescue Committee (IRC), U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS), U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and World Relief Corporation (WR).
The federally mandated refugee resettlement program has brought more than 718,000 refugees to the U.S. since January 2008 — a group larger than the entire state population of Wyoming, which has 577,000 residents. In the last decade, about 73,000 refugees have been resettled in California, 71,500 resettled in Texas, nearly 43,000 resettled in New York, and more than 36,000 resettled in Michigan.
Refugee resettlement costs American taxpayers nearly $9 billion every five years, according to the latest research. Over the course of five years, an estimated 16 percent of all refugees admitted will need housing assistance paid for by taxpayers.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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