“A Trump administration will not admit any refugees without the support of the local community where they are being placed,” Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump told an enthusiastic crowd of more than 5,000 who greeted him at the Sun Country Airlines hangar of the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport on Sunday.
Trump’s statement marked the first time he explicitly declared that if he is elected president, refugees will not be resettled “without the support of the local community where they are being placed.”
The Refugee Act of 1980’s “consultation clause” requires that the federal government and the director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement must consult with elected officials of state and local jurisdictions prior to the placement of refugees in their jurisdictions.
The Obama administration, however, has routinely failed to comply with this requirement. Only in the past several years have officials with the Office of Refugee Resettlement regularly communicated with states about refugees, but those communications typically come after the arrival of the refugees, rather than in advance of their arrival, as the Refugee Act of 1980 requires.
While the Refugee Act of 1980 requires the federal government to consult with local governments as well as state governments, Breitbart News has reported on several local governments who say they’ve never received any communications from the federal government before or after the resettlement of refugees.
Two states, Alabama and Texas, are suing the federal government for placing refugees in their jurisdiction without complying with the Refugee Act of 1980’s “consultation clause.”
L. Brooks Patterson, the county executive of Oakland County, Michigan said in September that the county also intends to sue the federal government for placing thousands of refugees in the county without complying with “the consultation clause.”
The trustees of one township in Michigan, Waterford, recently unanimously passed a resolution stating that the township “will not actively participate in the refugee resettlement program.”
Trump vigorously attacked Hillary Clinton’s plans to significantly increase the number of refugees admitted to the country, which the most recent Breitbart-Gravis national poll shows is opposed by more than a two to one margin, 59 percent to 28 percent.
“Hillary wants a 550 percent increase in Syrian refugees pouring into our country. And she wants virtually unlimited immigration and refugee admissions, from the most dangerous regions of the world, to come into our country and to come into Minnesota, and you know it better than anybody,” Trump said.
“Her plan will import generations of terrorism, extremism, and radicalism into your schools and throughout your communities,” he continued.
“When I’m elected president, we will suspend the Syrian refugee program and we will keep radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country,” Trump announced.
The crowd broke into chants of USA! USA! USA!
“How stupid, how stupid are our leaders. How stupid are they to allow this to happen,” the GOP nominee added.
Trump then made specific reference to the refugee problems in Minnesota, where Breitbart News has reported that 304 refugees have been diagnosed with active tuberculosis (TB) over the past six years.
“The whole world knows what’s happening in Minnesota. The whole world knows what’s happening to you,” Trump told the enthusiastic audience.
“Here in Minnesota you’ve seen first hand the problems caused with faulty refugee vetting, with large numbers of Somali refugees coming into your state without your knowledge, without your support or approval, and with some of them then joining ISIS and spreading their extremist views all over our country, and all over the world,” Trump added.
“Everybody’s reading about the disaster taking place in Minnesota, everybody’s reading about it. You don’t even have the right to talk about it, you don’t even know who’s coming in, you have no idea. You’ll find out. You’ll find out,” he said.
“You’ve seen the recent terrorist’s knife attack in St. Cloud,” Trump said, a reference to the September 17 attack on ten Americans at a mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota by Somali refugee Dahir Adan, who was killed in the midst of his attacks by an off-duty policeman.
“It’s the least they can do for you. You’ve suffered enough in Minnesota,” Trump said.
“And we will pause admissions from terror-prone regions until a full security assessment has been performed, and until a proven vetting mechanism has been established,” he added.
“And if you want people to just pour into Minnesota all you have to do is vote for Hillary Clinton, because that’s what she’s going to do. I don’t care how liberal you are I don’t care how politically correct you are, how stupid this has been,” Trump said of the Obama administration.
“A Trump administration will also secure and defend the borders of the United States. And yes, we will build a great wall,” he added.
“Hillary supports totally open borders. There goes your country!” Trump said.
Trump’s stop in Minnesota, coming just two days before Election Day is a bold bid to win a state that Real Clear Politics rates as “Lean Clinton,” and that has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1972.
The Real Clear Politics average of polls gives Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton a 6 point lead in Minnesota. The state, however, has been lightly polled. The most recent poll listed in the Real Clear Politics average was conducted between October 22 and October 23.
A Breitbart-Gravis poll conducted on September 23 showed the race to be a tie, but no other polls have shown a margin closer than 8 points.
Minnesota has 10 electoral college votes.
At a rally in Sterling Heights, Michigan later in the day, Trump made a similar argument about that state as well.
“Here in Michigan, you’ve seen firsthand the problems caused with the refugee program… It puts your security at risk and it puts enormous pressure on your schools and your community resources,” the Republican presidential nominee told an estimated crowd of 8,000.
Sterling Heights is located in Macomb County, a suburb of Detroit that neighbors Oakland County.
Real Clear Politics recently moved Michigan from “Leans Clinton” to a tossup. The Real Clear Politics average of polls currently gives Clinton a 4.7 point lead in the state.
Michigan has 16 electoral college votes.