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ACLU Sues Gov. Pence Over Handling Syrian Refugees

Last updated on Wednesday, November 25, 2015

(INDIANAPOLIS) - The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Governor Mike Pence over his handling of Syrian refugees headed for Indiana.

Last week, Pence suspended the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the state.

The ACLU of Indiana and its national organization announced the lawsuit on behalf of Exodus Refugee Immigration. The groups claim the governor is violating the U.S. Constitution and federal law by blocking the refugees from settling in Indiana.

"There is no border around the state of Indiana that prevents people from entering our state who may move freely within the United States," ACLU of Indiana legal director Ken Falk said in a release. "Decisions concerning immigration and refugee resettlement are exclusively the province of the federal government, and attempts to pre-empt that authority violate both equal protection and civil rights laws and intrude on authority that is exclusively federal."

The suit seeks an injunction to stop the governor from "taking any actions to suspend, block or withhold aid from refugees or from Exodus."

At least one family of refugees has already been affected by the governor's action. That family resettled in New Haven, Connecticut, where Governor Dannel Malloy took the opportunity to criticize his counterpart in Indiana.

"They know that they've been diverted. They know they've been unwelcome by another state," Malloy said.

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