Judge David Godbey of the U.S. District Court has once again ruled against the state of Texas in its efforts to deny the entry of refugees from Syria. According to the federal judge, courts do not have jurisdiction on the matter and only the national government has the authority to reverse its decision.
Texas is only one of the 30 states in the country to file a legal motion against the resettlement of Syrian refugees, ABC News reported. This occurred in December last year after Paris, France was hit by a series of terrorist attacks on Nov. 13. The extremist group ISIS, which operates in Syria, claimed responsibility over the attacks.
The move against migrants was spearheaded by Texas Governor Greg Abott, a Republican, who filed a lawsuit against President Barack Obama's administration in December for failing the stop the influx of refugees in the country. For this year, Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas filed a request for a temporary restraining order from the U.S. District Court to prevent the arrival of refugees in Houston later this week. These include a 26-year-old Syrian female and a family of eight, according to the Statesman.
In the request, Paxton noted that the refugees should be denied entry into the country or state due to safety and security concerns, suggesting that members of ISIS might be posing as migrants to enter the U.S. The attorney general noted that through this, the attacks that shook Paris could also happen on American soil.
Godbey, however, denied the request and said that Paxton failed to supply enough evidence to prove that terrorists are entering the country through the refugee resettlement program. He also stressed that only the federal government, and not the courts, has the authority to assess national security.
"The court does not deny that the Syrian refugees pose some risk," Godbey wrote in the Denial of Preliminary Injunction document. "That would be foolish. In our country, however, it is the federal executive that is charged with assessing and mitigating that risk, not the states and not the courts."
