Karla McKanders, associate professor of law and director of the UT Law Immigration Clinic, recently spoke to WBIR-TV about the more than two dozen United States governors asking the federal government to temporarily stop accepting refugees from Syria in light of the recent Paris attacks until a stronger vetting system can be developed and implemented.
In the interview, McKanders says that “there’s a lot of confusion about just how our system works in terms of processing resettled refugees to the United States.”
“The current process of admitting a refugee into the U.S. can take up to two years, she said, and includes background checks. Those look at ‘whether they’ve committed criminal acts, whether they’re connected to terrorist activity and then whether or not they have any health risk that would make them inadmissible to the United States,’ McKanders said.”
McKanders also discussed the constitutionality of governors outright refusing to accept refugees in the interview.