In a letter to President Trump today, the governor says the commonwealth is welcoming of “refugees who are fleeing war, persecution, or other dire circumstances.”
His statement is in response to a federal Executive Order from President Trump signed in October 2019 which requires state governments to say whether or not refugees were accepted in those states, ordering the Department of “Health and Human Services shall develop and implement a process to determine whether the State and locality both consent, in writing, to the resettlement of refugees within the State and locality, before refugees are resettled within that State and locality under the program.”
If a state opts out of receiving refugees, they cannot be resettled there without the consolation of Health and Human Services and the Homeland Security departments.
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