States Can’t Turn Away Refugees, Here’s Why…

Damon Root writing in Reason Magazine offered his critical analysis of why the blustering by state governors about refusing Syrian refugees doesn’t hold any water.

The U.S. Supreme Court provided an answer to these [refugee] questions in its 1915 decision in Truax v. Raich. At issue was the constitutionality of an Arizona law designed to prevent unwelcome foreigners from settling in that state by denying them the ability to secure meaningful employment. Under the terms of Arizona’s “act to protect the citizens of the United States in their employment against non-citizens of the United States, in Arizona,” all businesses with more than five employees were required to maintain a workforce that was comprised of at least 80 percent “qualified electors or native-born citizens.” As a direct result of this legislation, an Austrian-born cook named Mike Raich lost his job. Raich filed suit and eventually wound up before the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court sided with Raich and struck down the nativist state action. “The assertion of an authority to deny to aliens the opportunity of earning a livelihood when lawfully admitted to the State would be tantamount to the assertion of the right to deny them entrance and abode, for in ordinary cases they cannot live where they cannot work,” the Court declared. “And, if such a policy were permissible, the practical result would be that those lawfully admitted to the country under the authority of the acts of Congress, instead of enjoying in a substantial sense and in their full scope the privileges conferred by the admission, would be segregated in such of the States as chose to offer hospitality.”

Casey Given writing for Rare adds: 

As much as governors would like to appear tough in the wake of a terrorist attack, they are ultimately powerless to restrict the flow of legal immigration in their state.

Fortunately, they need not worry. There is little evidence of any tangible threat posed by refugees. A German police report obtained last week revealed that Syrian refugees commit less crime than German citizens — likely because they don’t want to jeopardize their immigration status. Here in the U.S., not one refugee has committed an act of terrorism (and, no, the Boston bombers were not refugees).

Scaremongering all too often dominates policymaking in the wake of terrorist attacks. It didn’t end well for us after 9/11. This time around, let’s be a little more rational.