Stephanie Wang, and Tony Cook

IndyStar

On the eve of Tuesday's vice presidential debate, Gov. Mike Pence's efforts to keep Syrian refugees out of Indiana suffered a series of devastating blows, with his preferred successor running away from the idea and a second court deciding that his attempt to block resettlement aid was discriminatory.

Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb, Pence's handpicked candidate to replace him on the Republican ticket, said after the gubernatorial debate Monday night he would not keep the ban on aid to Syrian refugees in place if elected.

“I would continue to allow the refugees to come in here and find safe haven," he said.

It was Holcomb's first major policy break with Pence, who appointed Holcomb as his lieutenant governor in March and then backed his bid to fill the ballot vacancy left when Pence became Donald Trump's vice presidential running mate in July. Since then, Pence has poured more than $1.2 million into Holcomb's campaign for governor.

Holcomb's comments came on the heels of a unanimous appeals court ruling earlier in the day that found Pence's effort to block resettlement aid was both discriminatory and lacked evidence of a public safety threat. One of the three judges who ruled on the case was Diane Sykes, who Trump listed in May as one of 11 potential Supreme Court appointees to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit reinforced a lower court's preliminary injunction, temporarily stopping Pence's order to suspend Syrian refugee resettlement in the state while a legal case against Pence continues. In explaining the decision, the appeals court indicated that Pence likely would lose the case.

"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," Judge Richard Posner wrote in the opinion. "No evidence of this belief has been presented, however; it is a nightmare speculation."

The ruling comes as Pence prepares to debate Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, on Tuesday.

Trump also has raised concerns over Syrian refugees in his presidential campaign. His son, Donald Trump Jr., recently likened Syrian refugees to Skittles in a highly controversial tweet: "If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful? That's our Syrian refugee problem."

In an emailed statement Thursday, Pence spokeswoman Kara Brooks pointed again to potential security gaps: “The safety and security of the people of Indiana is Gov. Pence's highest priority. ... In addition, as recently as Sept. 21, the State Department spokesman is quoted as saying he ‘wouldn’t debate the fact that there’s the potential for ISIS terrorists to try to insert themselves’ into the refugee program.”

The American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants' Rights Project called the court ruling "a stinging rebuke of Gov. Mike Pence's anti-refugee actions."

Pence ordered state agencies to suspend Syrian refugee resettlement last November by way of cutting off resettlement agencies from assistance funds. But the directive did not stop agencies, including Exodus Refugee Immigration, the nonprofit that filed the lawsuit against him, from resettling 174 Syrian refugees in Indiana this year.

The courts deemed Pence's order to be discrimination based on national origin. Judges said Indiana could withdraw from the federal refugee assistance program entirely, but cannot pick and choose which refugees to support.

Still, even if Indiana withdraws from the program, Posner noted that may not completely stop Syrian refugees from coming to Indiana.

Refugees undergo a two-year screening process to enter the country. But Pence argued that the federal government may not be able to identify terrorists posing as Syrian refugees, and said he had a compelling interest to protect the state from such a public safety threat.

"But that's the equivalent of his saying (not that he does say)," Posner wrote in the opinion, "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's not discriminating. But that of course would be racial discrimination, just as his targeting Syrian refugees is discrimination on the basis of nationality."

The Republican governor's position is "isolated," the judge said, since the opposition of other governors to Syrian refugee resettlement has "petered out."

Posner also wrote that the state provided "no evidence that Syrian refugees have ever committed acts of terrorism in the United States."

Regardless of any future court decisions, Holcomb's break with Pence all but guarantees that the ban on aid to Syrian refugees is doomed. Holcomb's Democratic opponent, John Gregg, also opposes efforts to block Syrian refugees.

"It’s wrong," he said Monday, "to ban people based on their ethnicity, their race, their religion and their national origin."

Judge sharply questions defense of Indiana's Syrian refugee ban: 'Oh, honestly, you are so out of it'

Call IndyStar reporter Stephanie Wang at (317) 444-6184. Follow her on Twitter:@stephaniewang.