POV: Refusing Syrian Refugee Admissions—A Reality Check

Authors

Sarah R. Sherman-Stokes, Boston University School of LawFollow

Author granted license

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-8-2015

Publisher

B.U. Today

Language

en-US

Abstract

On November 20, 27 GOP governors signed onto a letter calling on the Obama administration to suspend the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the United States. While our own governor, Charlie Baker, declined to sign the letter, he has been vocal about his concerns over the federal government’s refugee vetting process. The problem is that both responses—that of the 27 GOP governors and of Baker—ignore legal and procedural truths about refugee resettlement. In fact, governors cannot refuse to resettle Syrian refugees in their states, and the security screening measures already in place are exceptionally robust.

Recommended Citation

Sarah R. Sherman-Stokes, POV: Refusing Syrian Refugee Admissions—A Reality Check , in B.U. Today (2015).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/shorter_works/119

Publisher URL

https://www.bu.edu/articles/2015/syrian-refugee-admission