Presidential executive order leads to lawsuit, confusion

LACONIA — A presidential executive order says it’s up to state and local authorities to decide whether they want to accept refugees under a State Department program.

Late last month, Gov. Chris Sununu consented to refugee resettlement.

“With this action, it is now up to each city's mayor whether they want to opt-in to accepting refugees," he said in a news release.

That made it sound like every mayor in New Hampshire would have to weigh in on the subject of refugees, which could be controversial in Laconia, where “sanctuary cities” were a prominent feature of the recent mayoral campaign, with Rep. Peter Spanos saying he didn’t want Laconia to become one, and the eventual winner, Andrew Hosmer, calling it a non-issue.

Actually, only three cities in New Hampshire — Manchester, Nashua and Concord — now handle refugee resettlement and their leaders have agreed to continue to participate in the program, said State Refugee Coordinator Barbara Seebart.

Other cities could express an interest in opting in, but it’s not necessary.

Seebart said the state receives a relatively small number of refugees anyway and it could be years before a new locality would be able to qualify to participate in the program.

Ben Vihstadt, the governor’s spokesman, there’s nothing stopping local officials from seeking to participate.

“Just because they’re unlikely to receive refugees, that doesn’t mean they can't request them,” he said.

Seebart said that Laconia once was a place where refugees were resettled.

“They no longer resettle there,” she said. “During the downturn, employment wasn’t robust enough.”

In 2008, 100 Bhutanese refugees settled in the city. They were among 2,000 Bhutanese people who migrated to the state.

In recent years, most of those who have migrated to New Hampshire have come from the Democratic Republic of Congo and from Burma.

Typically 200 to 600 refugees settle in the state annually, but that number is expected to decline after a presidential determination that the United States would reduce the number of refugees it would accept, Seebart said.

Meanwhile, the state, and the Lakes Region, have many available jobs that could be filled by people new to the country.

“Our refugee agencies hear from employers many times in the week seeking entry level and skilled workers,” Seebart said. “Unfortunately we can’t meet the demands coming in for workers.”

The presidential order was intended to make sure there was adequate communication with states and localities where refugees might settle.

“Some states and localities have viewed existing consultation as insufficient, and there is a need for closer coordination and a more clearly defined role for State and local governments in the refugee resettlement process,” says the order, which is being challenged in federal court.

A lawsuit filed in a Maryland by three resettlement agencies contends the executive order threatens to keep thousands of refugees from being reunited with their families and placed in communities where they can thrive.

The agencies said they were already cooperating with local officials before the executive order.

President Donald Trump issued the order in September when he also reduced the cap on the number of refugees allowed into the country from 30,000 in 2019 to 18,000 in 2020, the lowest level since Congress passed the Refugee Act of 1980.

Since the executive order came out, many governors and counties around the country have declared that they would continue taking refugees. There has been confusion in some cases over exactly which local officials needed to respond.

Refugees have the right to move anywhere in the United States after their initial resettlement.