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US appeals court sides against Indiana governor in Syrian refugee case

October 5, 2016 at 11:18 am

Internally displaced children, covered with mud, wait with their families near the Syrian-Turkish border [Reuters/Ammar Abdullah]

Indiana Governor Mike Pence lost another round in federal court on Monday in his bid to keep refugees fleeing Syria’s civil war from resettling in his state.

The 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago affirmed a lower-court ruling that Pence’s order seeking to bar state agencies from helping the resettlement of Syrian immigrants discriminates against the refugees based on their national origin.

The Republican nominee for US vice president was among more than 25 US governors, mostly Republicans, who urged President Barack Obama to stop resettling refugees fleeing Syria’s civil war after the November 2015 attacks by extremists in Paris that killed 130.

Critics of the resettlement programme have argued that it leaves the United States vulnerable to infiltration by militants from Daesh which has seized vast swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq and claimed responsibility for attacks on civilians in Paris and elsewhere.

But Appeals Court Judge Richard Posner, writing for the three-judge panel that sided unanimously against Pence, said the governor’s assertions of a national security threat were presented “without evidence” and amounted to “nightmare speculation”.

All three appellate panel members are Republican appointees, including Judge Diane Sykes, who Pence’s running mate, Donald Trump, has said he would nominate to the US Supreme Court if he wins the 8 November presidential election.

Pence’s spokeswoman, Kara Brooks, said the FBI and US Homeland Security Department have acknowledged “security gaps” in screening of Syrian refugees. She also quoted a State Department spokesman who said last month that he “‘wouldn’t debate the fact that there’s the potential for ISIS terrorists to try to insert themselves’ into the refugee programme,” using another acronym for the group.

Pence’s order was blocked by a US district judge in February after a court challenge brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and he appealed.

The ACLU welcomed the court’s ruling on Monday as upholding the group’s position that the governor “may not constitutionally or legally discriminate against a particular nationality of refugees that are extensively vetted by the federal government.”

Indiana has accepted 150 Syrian immigrants between 1 October 2015 and 31 August 2016, accounting for about nine per cent of all refugee arrivals in the state during that period, according to the State Department.