“Iraqi refugee children, Damascus, Syria” by James Gordon from Los Angeles, California, USA – Iraqi refugee children, Damascus, Syria. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Commons.
The State of Georgia is denying a Syrian family federally funded and mandated benefits.
In the wake of the terror attacks in Paris and mounting paranoia regarding Syrian refugees, Republican Gov. Nathan Deal of Georgia issued an executive order in November directing that “all agencies of the State of Georgia halt any involvement in accepting refugees from Syria.”
This was quickly followed up by the issuance of an additional memo from the Georgia Department of Human Services directing their staff not to accept or process any applications for benefit assistance from any Syrian refugees.
In keeping with these Republican led mandates, the state Dept. of Human Services confirmed to the Atlantic Journal-Constitution last week that the State of Georgia is refusing to process the application for food stamps and other state benefits filed by a newly arrived Syrian refugee family of three, Mohammad and his wife Ebtesam and their four-year-0ld son Hasan. [The family asked that their last names not be published to protect relatives still residing in Syria.]
Ravae Graham, a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Human Services, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “We are just going to follow the process as outlined,” by the November memo prohibiting her agency from processing benefit applications to new refugees from war-torn Syria.
Talking Points Memo reports that: “The federal government has told Deal that he must roll back his executive order in order to comply with federal law. Jessica Shanin, associate administrator at the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, wrote a letter to the state in November warning that denying food stamps to Syrian refugees would violate federal law, noting that states cannot discriminate based on national origin or religion.”
Gov. Deal has stated that he won’t budge on his decision to deny food stamps to the family, telling the Savannah Morning News that: “I’ve already told them if they don’t like the way we administer the SNAP program, the food stamp program — it’s their program — if they don’t like the way we do it, let them come run it,” adding “We’ll hand it over to them.”
Additionally, Deal told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he is willing to go to court to defend the state’s decision not to process claims by Syrian refugees.
“We’re ready to defend it if we have to,” he said, adding: “I’d rather not spend taxpayer money defending something that can be avoided.”
However, Sam Olens, the Republican Attorney General for Georgia, does not believe that the state is on solid legal ground.
In an email sent last week, obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Olens wrote that Deal’s defense of his policy on Syrian refugees “is not well supported in the law.” Olens also said he hoped “every effort is made to resolve this matter without resort to litigation.”
Stephen Legomsky, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis and the former chief counsel for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service agrees, saying that Georgia could be making itself vulnerable to a lawsuit for the denial of equal protection by denying assistance to Syrian refugees while providing aid to others.
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