Three prominent “faith groups” are opposing Donald Trump’s new executive order that says individual states have the right to reject federal plans to install refugee resettlements in their jurisdictions. Largely seen as a concession of federal power, Trump’s order is designed to give more power to the states to determine whether or not – or how many – foreign refugees resettlements will be built in their borders.
Until Trump’s executive order, the federal government would resettle thousands of Middle Eastern “refugees” in states and local cities without any say-so from the local residents of those areas. Now, they have a choice. No one is really better equipped to know whether or not local infrastructure can abosrb thousands of new, needy residents than the local residents themselves. Trump’s proposal is lauded by supporters as within the spirit of the Third Amendment, which forbids the quartering of federal troops without permission. It is only reasonable to work in cooperation with state and local municipalities than against them.
However, HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), Church World Service (CWS), and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) filed a lawsuit against Trump on Thursday, which asserts that the federal government should resettle refugees “only in those jurisdictions in which both the State and local governments have consented in writing.”
The HIAS says that letting states and cities decide if or how many refugees they should let resettle, “eerily parallels to the Holocaust.”
The other two groups insisted in their press briefings that Jesus was a refugee.
Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of LIRS, said…
“As we … embark in the holiday season and Christmas Day, that celebration of the coming of the world’s most famous refugee, we pray the courts will provide the relief that vulnerable children and families need right now…”
Jesus, of course, was not a refugee. He crossed no International borders in his flight from Israel to Egypt, as both were a part of the Roman Empire. For him, it would have been like going from Oklahoma to Kansas, not like Mexico to the United States.
Rev. Jack Amick, director of global migration at the United Methodist Committee on Relief, argued the executive order is illegal and also “inhibits our ability to freely practice our religion.”
All of these organizations are funded by sub-organizations of the Open Societies Foundation, which partners with the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention.
These religious groups, HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), Church World Service, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, and the United Methodist Church have never taken part in a lawsuit against any president of the United States to protect the lives of the unborn.
