The Syrian Refugee Resettlement Is Being Done in Secret

Judicial Watch released 128 pages of documents Friday that it received from Mayor Christopher Louras of Rutland, Vermont, in which there appears to have been a “concerted effort” to “conceal from the public their plans to resettle 100 Syrian refugees” into the southern Vermont town.

It is just a microcosm of what is going on throughout the U.S., the government watchdog says.

In one email dated April 14, Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program Executive Director Amila Merdzanovic told Louras:

I want to share with you the concern my HQ has about holding a public forum. If we open it up to anybody and everybody, all sorts of people will come out of woodwork. Anti-immigrant, anti-anything. They suggest that the forum be invite only but make it as wide as possible. Work with faith leaders, United Way, etc. … Perhaps, we could go back to the Congregational Church and continue the conversation there.

Judicial Watch says the plan to resettle refugees—many of whom are unvetted, despite reports that ISIS and radical Islamic tendencies are running rampant through their numbers—was shrouded “in such secrecy that not even the town’s aldermen were informed” of what was happening. They eventually wrote to the U.S. Department of State to protest the plan and opened their own investigation into the mayor’s actions.

The State Department has not yet ruled on whether it will resettle refugees in Rutland despite the aldermen’s protest.

The documents suggested the conversation about refugees wasn’t framed in terms of what the community could do for the Syrians, but rather what the added diversity would do for the town and its citizens. As for the former, however, the documents contain detailed discussions of what Rutland was required to provide, including housing, jobs, medical care and places for worship.

The documents also included an April 10 email to the director of the State Refugee Office stating:

He did share with me that the governor’s office called him after getting a frantic call from DOL [Vermont Department of Labor] inquiring about the plan to resettle ‘100 Syrians in the next month’ in Rutland. Again, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of not sharing the information even if it is confidentially.

Judicial Watch has been investigating the Obama administration’s plan to bring 10,000 Syrian refugees to the U.S. in 2016 and even more in 2017 since December of last year. The White House has insisted on pressing ahead, despite more than 120 dead and 350 wounded in terror attacks linked to Islamists who infiltrated the Syrian refugee program.

“Americans should be concerned that the Obama administration is funneling at least $46 million in tax dollars to a shady operation that encourages elected officials to cover up Obama’s Syrian refugee scheme,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said.