Georgia confirmed Thursday that it is sticking to its policy of refusing to process applications for food stamps and other benefits filed by newly arrived Syrian refugees, possibly setting up a legal showdown.
“We are just going to follow that process as outlined,” Ravae Graham, a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Human Services, said in referring to a Nov. 18 memo that outlines her agency’s policy.
A Syrian refugee family of three arrived in the Atlanta area last week and applied for food stamps and Medicaid Thursday. Mohammad and his wife Ebtesam — who asked that their last names not be published to protect relatives still living in Syria — have not heard whether their applications for themselves and their four-year-old son Hasan would be processed, said Joshua Sieweke, the Atlanta office director for World Relief, which is helping them resettle in the Atlanta area. Graham declined to comment on their specific applications Thursday, citing privacy reasons.
Last month, Gov. Nathan Deal joined more than two dozen of his counterparts in moving to halt the resettlement of Syrian refugees in their states. They have raised security concerns in the wake of the terrorist attacks that killed 130 people in Paris on Nov. 13. Under pressure to do more as Syria’s four-year-old civil war rages on, President Barack Obama is pledging the U.S. will take in 10,000 refugees from that country over the next year.
Georgia’s policy has triggered a sharp warning from the Obama administration, which told the state last month it must rescind its Nov. 18 memo to comply with federal law. Georgia could be making itself vulnerable to a federal equal protection lawsuit by denying help to Syrian refugees while aiding others, said Stephen Legomsky, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis and the former chief counsel for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
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