November 23, 2015 4:26 PM

Local leaders get in on the refugee fight

If last week's was all about GOP governors saying they’d reject refugees, this week could see the rise of the mayors who oppose that

The familiar war of words between Republican governors and the Obama Administration was hardly surprising when it boiled over last week. More than 30 governors, most of them Republicans, told the White House that they would refuse to take any refugees fleeing Syria's four-year civil war. What followed was a week of debate about what power, exactly, the governors had to make such a declaration, much less enforce it.

Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott took a leadership role in the fight, becoming the first governor to cite a specific law that he said allows him to keep Syrian refugees out of Texas. Pointing to Section 8-1522 of the United States Code, Abbott told Fox News' Sean Hannity that activities by local refugee resettlement agencies "should be conducted in close cooperation and advance consultation with State and local governments."

"The money that flows from the federal government to these agencies goes through the state, and these agencies have to, quote, cooperate with the states," Abbott said. "Because I am saying that we are not going to allow these refugees in the State of Texas, that means that we as a state are going to be able to cut this off, and that is pursuant to federal law."

By Bobby Cervantes, Houston Chronicle