Christie Never Followed Through On Order Blocking Syrian Refugees

Republican presidential candidate New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015, on strengthening U.S. intelligence capabilities and other topics. (AP... Republican presidential candidate New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015, on strengthening U.S. intelligence capabilities and other topics. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) MORE LESS
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After the Paris terrorist attacks, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) wrote in a letter to President Obama that he would direct the state Department of Human Services to refuse to help with the resettlement of Syrian refugees.

But as Politico New Jersey reported on Thursday, Christie never issued an order to the Department of Human services beyond his letter to the President.

Requests filed through the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) by Politico show that Christie never filed an order to the Department of Human Services. One OPRA custodian told Politico that they never received a document from Christie, while another employee said that the letter to Obama was the directive.

Kevin Roberts, a spokesman for Christie, told Politico that Christie’s directive to the Department of Human Services was made clear in his letter to the President.

Christie also wrote in his letter that he would ask nonprofit refugee resettlement agencies to notify the state of any Syrian refugees set to arrive in the state. The governor’s office did not entirely fulfill Politico’s open records request regarding those communications.

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Notable Replies

  1. Christie is probably just distracted by the recent death of King Hussein of Jordan.

  2. Avatar for dnl dnl says:

    That’s got to be it…

  3. Avatar for pshah pshah says:

    The order to DHS is probably on his personal e-mail server, along with the Bridgegate documents.

  4. Avatar for meri meri says:

    Courage!

  5. Avatar for jeloso jeloso says:

    Tempest in a teapot. Or a 55-gallon drum, as the case may be.

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