Syrian refugees

Alabama is suing the federal government to force it to consult with the state before placing refugees in Alabama

(Hadi Mizban)

Gov. Robert Bentley has run out of patience trying to convince the federal government to follow federal law requiring it to consult with the state before placing refugees within Alabama's borders.

Bentley is admittedly frustrated that despite numerous letters, including to the White House and U.S. Department of State, and conversations with federal officials, none of it has seemingly gotten Uncle Sam's attention.

Now Bentley is hoping a lawsuit will.

Today, lawyers for the state filed suit in federal court in Birmingham seeking to force the United States government to follow the Refugee Act of 1980, and "consult with the state regarding the placement of refugees before those refugees are placed within its borders."

"That consultation has not occurred," according to the lawsuit.

Bentley explained his reasons for suing the federal government this way:

"We decided to file this lawsuit because of the frustration that we have suffered related to the fact that the federal government has not responded at all to us as a state dealing with the refugee resettlement. They have not done what we have asked them to do: give us pre-entry information on individuals as they come into the state, not only as far as numbers but as far as individuals and names of individuals so that we would know who we were dealing with if they were being resettled into Alabama."

Bentley said he thinks he knows why the federal government has not responded.

"We believe they are intentionally circumventing the states," said Bentley. "We believe that they just basically disregard the states. It is my duty as the governor of the state to secure and protect the people of Alabama. I am not able to do that if we don't know who is coming from foreign nations and we know nothing about them and we don't even know where they go when they leave the state."

Bentley said the lawsuit seeks to force the federal government to do what it has not seen fit to do apparently without a court order.

"What we're asking in this suit is basically that they treat the state with respect. That we are the ones who secure the people of this state and protect the people of this state and we need to have the information on refugees as they come in to allow us to do that," said the governor.

Bentley in mid-November made national news when he said Alabama would oppose refugees from war-torn Syria. The governor acted just days after attacks in Paris by terrorists killed 130 people and injured another 300 and after reports that one of the terrorists had gained entry into France by posing as a Syrian refugee.

Bentley's decision to try to close Alabama to Syrian refugees triggered similar efforts by about 30 other governors - most of them Republicans - and led to action in Congress which acted to ask President Obama to slow down the process of admitting Syrian refugees into the country until more steps were taken to vet refugees.

Obama has said the U.S. will admit 10,000 Syrian refugees over the course of this year and has strongly criticized governors and others for opposing the humanitarian effort to help people, particularly children, who have suffered during that nation's bloody civil war. Refugee agencies have said that the United States already has one of the most thorough systems of background checks in the world that refugees must go through before gaining entry into the U.S.

Texas has already filed suit against the federal government seeking to stop Syrian refugees from coming into that state. Unlike Alabama, which has so far seen no Syrian refugees resettled in the state, Texas has.

As part of its lawsuit Texas had sought an injunction to stop the federal government from settling refugees in the state. The judge in the case has denied that injunction but the Texas case is continuing.

The Alabama lawsuit seeks to force the federal government to consult with the state before placing any refugees in Alabama, not just Syrian refugees, said Bentley.

As part of the lawsuit, the state is seeking not only additional information on the refugees who have been resettled in Alabama or could be resettled but also their medical histories. And perhaps most importantly, the lawsuit seeks the federal courts order "a certification by the (U.S) secretary of state or the relevant federal official with knowledge ... that those refugees pose no security risk."

Unlike in Texas, Alabama has no state agency whose responsibilities include resettling refugees. The refugee program in Alabama is established between the United States Department of State and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops through a cooperative agreement.

In addition, the bishops have entered a sub-agreement with Catholic Social Services of the Greater Mobile Area.

Those agencies are required to provide consultations to Alabama officials four times a year and submit quarterly reports on refugee reception; something Bentley said has not been done.

Bentley said the suit boils down to the state needing more information about refugees here now and who might be here later.

"We need to know who is coming into the state of Alabama," said Bentley. "And if we don't know that, and we don't at the present time, then we can't track them, we can't know what happened to them and if they leave the state of Alabama we don't know who they are."