Biden Ensures States, Cities Have No Veto Power Over Afghan Refugees
On Thursday, though, refugee resettlement agencies told the Washington Post the number of Afghans “seeking evacuation through a U.S. visa program” is closer to 100,000 and could be as high as 300,000.
Regardless, Biden has ensured that states and local jurisdictions will not have any say in whether Afghans are resettled in their communities.
In September 2019, former President Trump issued an executive order that gave state governors, county officials, and local governments the power to veto refugee resettlement in their communities. The order was a major win for activists, specifically in Tennessee, who had fought the Obama administration for its dumping of refugees across the state without any input from the governor, mayors, and local citizens.
By January 2020, a federal judge granted a nationwide preliminary injunction — requested by refugee contractors who sued over Trump’s order — that stripped states and local jurisdictions of their veto power until the case was settled.
In early February 2020, Biden rescinded Trump’s order.
Then, in January, a panel of three judges on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, two liberals appointed by President Obama and one liberal appointed by President Clinton, upheld the previous court decision that banned implementation of Trump’s order.
Now that is terribly depressing.