Texas became the first US state Friday to declare it will not resettle refugees, responding to President Donald Trump’s sustained crackdown on all immigration. The second-largest US state by population, Texas has resettled hundreds of thousands of refugees since the 1980s. In September the State Department set a ceiling of accepting 18,000 refugees for the fiscal year that began on October 1, down from 30,000 the previous year and the lowest level in over three decades. In fiscal 2016, the final year of the previous administration of President Barack Obama, the country accepted 85,000 refugees. Ahead of a January 21 deadline to declare themselves, a State Department list showed Friday that 38 of the 50 states had announced they were open to resettling refugees.

Source: Punch January 11, 2020 09:33 UTC