Texas divided over accepting refugees

AMARILLO, Texas — Patrick Maboko came to the Texas Panhandle from the Democratic Republic of Congo 10 years ago as a refugee. He still speaks Swahili, but often makes his way around town these days in boots and a cowboy hat.

During the day, he operates a saw at the Tyson meat-processing plant in Amarillo.

On weekends, he takes his family downtown to cheer the minor league Amarillo Sod Poodles. Maboko, 45, never thought he would feel at home in a place like the Panhandle, where cattle outnumber people by a significant margin in some counties.

But Amarillo, a city whose residents at first raised questions about welcoming so many foreigners, has seen thousands of refugees like Maboko arrive over the years, from Myanmar, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and elsewhere.

Sixty languages are spoken in Amarillo’s schools.

“I feel like I’m a Texan,” Maboko said. “I have a vision of life so I can see now I am fitting in here.”

This month, Gov. Greg Abbott became the first governor to announce that Texas no longer wanted to resettle new refugees, saying that a state that also was the epicenter of recent mass migration from Central America had done more than its share.

Abbott faced immediate criticism from big-city mayors across Texas, the state’s two biggest newspapers and all 16 of its Catholic bishops — but not from the statewide Republican leadership that has been a reliable ally in President Donald Trump’s attempts to curb immigration.

Long before Trump was elected, Abbott and other Republican leaders in Texas built their political careers on talking tough about immigration.

They sent National Guard troops to the border, adopted a law banning sanctuary cities and led a lawsuit to end the federal program that protects many young immigrants living in the country illegally from deportation.

In his announcement, Abbott, whose wife is the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants, was taking the state’s anti-refugee policies to the next level.

In 2016, Texas withdrew from the federal refugee resettlement program in a dispute with the Obama administration over the state’s refusal to accept Syrian refugees.

But that earlier withdrawal was largely a symbolic move; the latest announcement took advantage of an executive order, issued by Trump last year, that gives states and local governments the power to opt out of accepting refugees.

For now, Abbott’s decree is without force — a federal judge last week issued a preliminary injunction blocking Trump’s executive order, but the administration is expected to appeal the ruling.

Here in Amarillo, which for a time took in more refugees per capita than any other Texas city, few share the governor’s alarm over refugees, and those who do have a far more nuanced view. They have long lived with refugees, not as abstract political talking points, but as neighbors.

Many conservatives in Amarillo express support for Abbott’s stance on refugees but have no harsh words for the people who have joined their city, some of whom they have invited into their homes and tried to help with donations of time and money.

Two nonprofit groups — Refugee Services of Texas and Catholic Charities of the Texas Panhandle — resettled and assisted nearly 7,000 refugees in Amarillo and nearby cities from 2007 through 2017. Refugee admissions have dropped sharply since Trump took office; only about 200 have come in since then.