Feds Warn Georgia: Refusing to Process Food Stamp Applications for Syrian Refugees Violates Federal Law

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Against the governor of Georgia’s wishes, the federal government has ordered the state to process food stamp applications for Syrian refugees.

Via WDEF.com:

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Gov. Nathan Deal last week issued an order directing state agency heads to prevent the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the state.

Subsequently, the commissioner of the Georgia Department of Human Services sent a memo to agency staff instructing them not to take or process new applications for any benefit assistance for Syrian refugees. The Division of Family and Children Services is part of the Department of Human Services.

Jessica Shahin, associate administrator of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, stepped in and ordered the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services to process the applications.

In her letter Wednesday to the director of the Georgia DFCS, Shahin wrote that “refusing applications because of national origin violates federal law.”

Unfortunately, Americans have good reasons to be wary of government funds going to refugees from terror-ridden countries. Even if only two percent of them are actual terrorists (as some experts have estimated), that’s too big a risk.

According to the Refugee Processing Center, of the 2,234 Syrian refugees admitted to the United States from October 2010 through November, 43 percent are children under age 14. Fifty-three percent are male and 47 percent are female. Many of these people have been traumatized by war and are in legitimate need of assistance.

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Males aged 14-30, potentially the dangerous group, are 13 percent of the already admitted Syrian refugees — or about 290. Experts say that about 2% of those will be terrorists, which amounts to around six. President Obama wants to bring 10,000 more of these refuges to the United States. Some would argue that this is the risk we must take in order to help the genuinely needy. Others say we should at least put a pause on the process until we know we can adequately vet those who are coming here.

The House passed a bill on Thursday to implement enhanced security screenings for the refugee application process, but the president complained that it would do little but “gum up the works.”

Refugees have in the past misused government assistance by committing food stamp fraud and sending the ill-gotten booty back to their terrorist nations.

And Boston bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev plotted to kill and maim U.S. citizens after receiving as much as $100,000 in government assistance.

The parents of the Tsarnaev brothers applied for asylum in the United States as refugees, and took full advantage of our generous welfare system.

The accused Boston Marathon bombers’ family pulled in more than $100,000 in welfare up until 2012, The Boston Herald reported.

The benefits included food stamps, Section 8 housing and stipends, the report said. One person with knowledge of the documents that will be handed over to the House Post Audit and Oversight Committee told the paper, “the breadth of the benefits the family was receiving was stunning.”

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In recent years, thousands of Iraqis have come to the United States as “war refugees” and now federal investigators are sifting through their records to see if they are like the two terrorists who were recently arrested in Kentucky.

The Daily Mail said two Iraqis who were arrested in Kentucky a couple years ago on charges related to terrorism — and who were living in public housing, collecting welfare checks from the government — told authorities that there may actually be more like them living in America. So now, FBI agents are rushing to check databases and compare the fingerprints of the 70,000 Iraqis who obtained refugee status and moved to America after the Iraq War, to those that are lifted off various improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

And they’ve found some matches.

Gregory Carl, who directs the FBI’s Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center, said to ABC News that he’s identified “dozens” of Iraqi refugees with fingerprints that are suspiciously close to those that have been lifted off of IEDs. Members of Congress, meanwhile, are expressing growing alarm at the findings.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if there were many more than that,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, The Daily Mail reported. “That really concerns me.”

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It’s concerning that President Obama wants to import 10,000 more refugees, knowing that a certain percentage of them will be terrorists or terrorist sympathizers.  But it’s a downright travesty that he wants American taxpayers to foot the bill for their welfare checks, food stamps, Medicaid, and subsidized housing.

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