What a Great Idea – Nebraska May Hold Volags Responsible for Costs if Refugees Commit Felonies

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Refugee resettlement agencies would be held liable for refugees from “high-risk” countries who commit crimes under a bill introduced Thursday in the State Legislature.

Papillion State Sen. Bill Kintner, the bill’s sponsor, said his intent it to protect Nebraskans.

Legislative Bill 966 would require that sponsoring organizations on contract with the government pay for the costs of prosecutions and for damages and injuries up to $25 million to victims should a refugee commit a felony.

“Which we hope they don’t,” Kintner said. “We hope they come here and embrace the American lifestyle and become great Americans.”

The bill lists 34 countries or territories — most of which are majority Muslim — as high risk, including Syria, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. But Kintner said the bill is aimed at Syrian refugees, because “we have no way to vet them.”

“We don’t know anything about them,” he said. “Are they Islamic jihadists slipping in? It’s something that most Nebraskans are not willing to accept or take.”

Three private resettlement agencies — Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, Catholic Social Services of Southern Nebraska and the Refugee Empowerment Center — have contracts with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services to help refugees get resettled in the state.

A spokesman for Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, the state’s largest placement agency for refugees, said the group’s executive team was not yet ready to comment.

In the wake of the Paris attacks last fall, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts and several other governors raised concerns about Syrian refugees, saying terrorists might use them as cover to sneak across borders.

A Syrian passport was found near the body of one of the suicide bombers in Paris, and his fingerprints matched those of someone who passed through Greece in October. It was unclear whether the passport was authentic. Many fake Syrian passports are in circulation.