Texas Governor Greg Abbott is a mean man. He’s a dumb man. He’s a mean, dumb man. He is also a liar. Last week, on the heels of the tragic events in France, Abbott joined his fellow cowards Republicans in trying to ban Syrian refugees from entering his state. He referred to the Syrian refugees that had been erroneously implicated, on suspect evidence, and made this statement:
The FBI director Abbott is talking about is James Comey, who said, in front of a House Committee on Homeland Security, that he wanted to be able to do more extensive background checks on refugees. The part that is disingenuous is that the FBI’s James Comey said what every single FBI director in the history of the FBI says when in front of the governing body that can get his department more or less money—that he needs more money.
Whatever. Texas Governor Greg Abbott is a snake oil salesman and you can’t sell snake oil without the fear of death. You also cannot be a right-wing Texas governor and not be a full-blown racist asshat either, and so Governor Abbott upped the ante by having Chris Traylor—executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission—write to Texan nonprofits saying that, on matter of helping settling refugees, they have a “statutory duty to cooperate and consult with the state.”
Traylor, heeding Abbott’s call, wrote that the commission reserves the “right to refuse to cooperate with any resettlement on any grounds and, until further notice, will refuse to cooperate with the resettlement of any Syrian refugees in Texas.”
“If you have any active plans to resettle Syrian refugees in Texas, please discontinue those plans immediately,” Traylor wrote to the agencies.
The strength of this ultimatum by Abbott is the risk to various nonprofit organizations’ funding.
"It puts them in a situation that I think is very uncomfortable," said immigration attorney Gordon Quan regarding the letter. "This is basically saying, 'Don't do resettlement. If you do resettlement of these Syrian refugees, you may be endangering the whole program that you have'."
But, as Governor Abbott said himself:
"As the governor of the state of Texas I will not roll the dice and take the risk on letting a few refugees in simply to expose Texans to that danger," said Abbott.
Well said, Mr. Abbott. Here is a list of things Governor Greg Abbott is willing to roll the dice and take a risk of exposing Texans to danger to:
- Choosing the fracking industry over health concerns and the will of Texans.
- Choosing homeschooler to be head of Texas’s public education system.
- Choosing magic and superstition and fascism over female Texans.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott proves one thing: it can always get worse when you vote Republican.