Donald Trump’s running mate, the governor of Indiana, has sought to prevent resettlement of Syrian people on the basis of terrorism fears

A federal appeals court has issued a stinging ruling dismissing as “nightmare speculation” Indiana governor Mike Pence’s attempt to deter Syrian refugees from settling in the state because of terrorism fears.

The decision by the seventh circuit on Monday was the latest legal setback to efforts launched by Donald Trump’s running mate in the wake of last November’s Paris terrorist attacks to stop Syrian refugees from coming to Indiana by denying them aid.

Like many other states, Indiana receives money from the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement and contracts with humanitarian groups to provide local welfare services to refugees. Under federal law, such help must be provided “without regard to race, religion, nationality, sex, or political opinion”.

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The Republican vice-presidential candidate, though, specifically attempted to exclude refugees originating from Syria on the basis that they might be terrorists. He ordered the state not to reimburse groups for the costs of providing aid to Syrians. According to the court, 174 Syrian refugees came to Indiana in the past fiscal year.

While this hardline stance may have chimed with the views of Trump, whose immigration policies have included proposing a temporary ban on Muslims entering the US, it was rejected by the three-judge appeals court panel in a six-page ruling that echoed a lower court’s decision earlier this year.

“The governor of Indiana believes, though without evidence, that some of these persons were sent to Syria by ISIS to engage in terrorism and now wish to infiltrate the United States in order to commit terrorist acts here. No evidence of this belief has been presented, however; it is nightmare speculation,” Judge Richard Posner wrote in the opinion.

“[Pence] provides no evidence that Syrian terrorists are posing as refugees or that Syrian refugees have ever committed acts of terrorism in the United States. Indeed, as far as can be determined from public sources, no Syrian refugees have been arrested or prosecuted for terrorist acts or attempts in the United States. And if Syrian refugees do pose a terrorist threat, implementation of the governor’s policy would simply increase the risk of terrorism in whatever states Syrian refugees were shunted to.”

The opinion adds that Pence’s claim that he is not discriminating based on nationality but purely acting based on safety concerns is “the equivalent of his saying (not that he does say) that he wants to forbid black people to settle in Indiana not because they’re black but because he’s afraid of them, and since race is therefore not his motive he isn’t discriminating. But that of course would be racial discrimination, just as his targeting Syrian refugees is discrimination on the basis of nationality.”

The outcome was expected after Indiana’s plan was received less than warmly in court during oral arguments last month. Courthouse News reported that Judge Frank Easterbrook said: “When a state makes an argument that’s saying we’re differentiating according to whether somebody is from Syria, but that has nothing to do with national origin, all it produces is a broad smile.” Posner asked: “Are Syrians the only Muslims that Indiana fears?”

Ken Falk, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, said in a statement: “The Court of Appeals’ decision underscores what we have said throughout this litigation … Governor Pence may not constitutionally or legally discriminate against a particular nationality of refugees that are extensively vetted by the federal government.” The ACLU represented Exodus Refugee Immigration, a not-for-profit agency that brought the lawsuit.

With immigration and battling Isis key issues in the forthcoming presidential election, leading Republican politicians have accused the federal government of failing to adequately screen refugees and several states have tried to exert more control over who is resettled inside their borders, though immigration is a federal matter.

Last Friday, Texas became the latest state to opt out of the federal refugee resettlement programme, following New Jersey and Kansas earlier this year.

But the move will not stop the arrival of refugees from Syria or anywhere else in the Lone Star state. The federal government and aid agencies will instead work to formulate an arrangement that circumvents the state’s administration of the process.

The Obama administration has pledged to increase the number of refugees arriving in the US from Syria and other nations. The president announced last month that the US would accept 110,000 in fiscal year 2017 – up from 85,000 in 2016, of which more than 12,500 were Syrian.

Pence faces off against Tim Kaine, his Democratic opponent, in the vice-presidential debate in Virginia on Tuesday.