What Happened Immediately After This US City Accepted a Few Syrian Refugees Has Many Furious

Tuesday, November 17, 2015 10:02

 

Baton Rouge Waterfront Area

In theory, the federal program to resettle refugees screens out potential terrorists and works with local communities as partners to track the refugees and ensure resettlement is a success.
From Baton Rouge, La., comes new evidence that in reality, once refugees are in the country they can just disappear with no one the least bit the wiser. This case has also revealed that there is no communication to alert state governments what the federal government is doing right under the states’ noses.
TV station WBRZ has reported that one Syrian refugee resettling in Baton Rouge simply walked away from the agency that was supposedly in charge of the person and the process.
“Catholic Charities helped the refugee who settled in Baton Rouge, but said the immigrant left for another state after a couple of days, and they don’t know where the refugee went since they don’t track them,” WBRZ reported.
That was not the only unpleasant surprise. WBRZ reported that until this past weekend, when state officials heard the news on TV, Louisiana officials did not even know Louisiana was already home to 14 resettled Syrian refugees, including 7 in Kenner and 6 in the New Orleans area.
“This is a federal program, and it was their responsibility, as the governor has stated, that they should have notified myself or governor directly,” said Kevin Davis, Director of the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management.
Gov. Bobby Jindal addressed this huge lapse in partnership Monday in his executive order preventing any state resources to be used in support of resettling Syrian refugees in Louisiana.
“The State of Louisiana has been denied critical information by the federal government regarding Syrian refugees already relocated into this state, creating an untenable situation,” Jindal’s executive order said. The order also calls for strict monitoring of the refugees.
Commenters decried the bumbling.
“‪One out of 14 has gone missing? That’s 7%. So, that works out to 7,000 out of every 100,000 we bring in. The Paris slaughter was brought about by 8 people. They killed over 120, which, divided by 8, gives 15+ dead per jihadist. So, 7,000 jihadists times 15 comes out to over 90,000 future victims on the table,” wrote Harry Buskin.
h/t: The Hayride