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Texas GOP Governor Abbott Hypocritically Tramples On Religious Freedom

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Greg Abbott Orders Faith-Based Nonprofits To Stop Resettling Syrians

Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott is all about protecting religious liberty — except when he’s not. 

If the issue is same-sex marriage, for example, Abbott supports allowing government employees like Kentucky clerk Kim Davis to opt out of doing their jobs if they have religious objections. 

“Texans of all faiths must be absolutely secure in the knowledge that their religious freedom is beyond the reach of government,” Abbott said in a statement responding to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. “The government must never pressure a person to abandon or violate his or her sincerely held religious beliefs regarding a topic such as marriage.”

Likewise, if the issue is reproductive rights, Abbott believes employers should be allowed to opt out providing health coverage to women. In 2012, then-Attorney General Abbott joined five other states in filing a lawsuit against the federal government over the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act. 

“Obamacare’s latest mandate tramples the First Amendment’s freedom of religion and compels people of faith to act contrary to their convictions,” Abbott said at the time. “The very first amendment to our Constitution was intended to protect against this sort of government intrusion into our religious convictions.”

But now that the issue is Syrian refugees, Abbott appears perfectly willing to trample on the First Amendment rights of faith-based nonprofits. Under Abbott’s direction, the executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission penned a letter to nonprofit agencies last week demanding that they comply with the governor’s efforts to block Syrian refugees. 

“If you have any active plans to resettle Syrian refugees in Texas, please discontinue those plans immediately,” Commissioner Chris Traylor wrote.  

Some agencies, including Catholic Charities of Dallas, have indicated they won’t go along with the directive from the governor (who happens to be Catholic). 

“Catholic Charities believes in a compassionate response to those who are fleeing violence and persecution around the world. We are called by the Gospel to reach out to all those in need,” Catholic Charities said in a statement.

Bee Moorhead, executive director of Texas Impact, a faith organization that works closely with refugee aid agencies, expressed shock and dismay at Abbott’s letter.

“We are deeply concerned that the Governor’s letter directs those agencies to interfere with the religious freedom of faith-based humanitarian agencies working in Texas,” Moorhead wrote. “As we read the Governor’s letter, he appears to be directing state agencies to pressure faith-based organizations to violate the sincerely held beliefs of their religious traditions.

“The vicious and inhuman acts perpetrated in Paris, Beirut, and around the world on unsuspecting civilians by terrorists appall people of all faiths,” she added. “However, Governor Abbott’s fearful response now threatens to provide precisely the reaction terrorists hope to achieve-scapegoating of entire national and religious groups, and division among religious communities. Additionally, it runs roughshod over the freedom of religious humanitarian organizations in Texas to practice their faith.” 

Abbott, of course, is one of more than two dozen governors who’ve said they’ll stop accepting Syrian refugees in the wake of the Paris terror attacks, even though they apparently lack the legal authority to turn them away. But Abbott has gone a step beyond most others. In addition to impinging on the religious liberties of nonprofit agencies, Abbott has violated Syrian refugees’ civil rights by ordering the Department of Public Safety to track those already in Texas. 

In an effort to justify his ridiculous actions, Abbott recently claimed eight Syrian refugees had been “caught” crossing the Texas border in Laredo. As it turned out, two Syrian families had actually turned themselves in, prompting Politifact to rate Abbott’s claim as “mostly false.” 

By Monday, Abbott had begun raising money based on his opposition to resettling Syrian refugees: 

Worst of all, Abbott’s rhetoric may be fanning the already fervent flames of anti-Islamic hatred among right-wingers in Texas. Over the weekend, protesters staged an armed rally outside a mosque in Irving, wearing bandanas over their faces and carrying long guns. 

“They’re mostly for self-defense or protection,” one protester with a 12-gauge rifle told The Dallas Morning News. “But I’m not going to lie. We do want to show force. … It would be ridiculous to protest Islam without defending ourselves.”

Fortunately, not all elected officials in Texas are as crazy as Abbott. Among those who showed up at the protest was Irving City Councilman Chris Palmer. 

“My initial impression was they were using them for intimidation,” Palmer told The Dallas Morning News, referring to protesters’ guns. “I doubt that they’d be happy if some of the Muslim churchgoers here showed up at their Christian church, their Baptist church, their Methodist church tomorrow morning with rifles slung over their shoulders.”

Meanwhile, Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings have publicly rejected misleading, reactionary, xenophobic rhetoric from the likes of Abbott. Rawlings told MSNBC on Saturday that such rhetoric only plays into the hands of ISIS.

“ISIS wants us to be divided on this issue. ISIS wants us to demonize these Syrian refugees, wants us to alienate these children,” Rawlings said. “ISIS is no more Islamic than the Nazi senior staff was Christian, so we’ve got to differentiate between those. … I am more fearful of large gatherings of white men that come into schools, theaters and shoot people up, but we don’t isolate young white men on this issue.”

 

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license

 

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‘Intolerable Abuse of Power’: Top Democrat Rages at Trump’s ‘MAGA Propaganda’ Scheme

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October 2, 2025

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U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin blasted the Trump administration for using federal government websites and emails to display partisan messages to the American people, at times appearing to be from federal government civil service employees, and reportedly without their knowledge or consent.

Numerous federal websites, including the homepages of the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, all show partisan messages specifically blaming Democrats for the shutdown of the federal government.

Outgoing out-of-office auto-reply email messages at the Education Department and other government agencies also blamed Democrats for the shutdown. At the DOE, messages were inserted into emails and appeared as if the sender had written them, causing frustration among several civil service workers concerned about possibly appearing to violate the Hatch Act.

READ MORE: Leavitt Explains White House Claim ‘Illegals’ Get Free Health Care—Experts Disagree

“I have been contacted by numerous constituents outraged by the fact that the Trump Administration is now sending out blatantly partisan messages, both on official Websites and through emails from federal agencies,” Congressman Raskin, the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement on Thursday, calling the messages “Orwellian miscommunication” and an “intolerable abuse of power.”

“These official agency messages blame ‘Senate Democrats’ and the ‘Radical Left’ for the government shutdown.” He alleged that several taxpayer-funded agencies “are now being turned into MAGA propaganda organs.”

“Taxpayers cannot be forced to be a captive audience for propaganda against the Administration’s opponents every time they inquire about their benefits and rights,” Raskin continued. “Nor may an Administration grant itself a campaign contribution of free nationwide political ads by hijacking agency service messages.”

READ MORE: Trump Boasts of Meeting With Project 2025 Architect to Cut ‘Democrat Agencies’

 

Image via Reuters

 

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‘None of Us Consented’: Trump Admin Blasted for Altering Federal Workers’ Emails

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9 hours ago

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October 2, 2025

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The Trump administration is being accused of manipulating the email messages of Department of Education civil service employees who say that — without their knowledge or consent — their out-of-office messages during the shutdown were altered and became partisan, a possible violation of the Hatch Act.

Emails were changed to “include partisan talking points that blamed a government shutdown on Democrats,” according to NBC News.

“None of us consented to this. And it’s written in the first-person, as if I’m the one conveying this message, and I’m not. I don’t agree with it. I don’t think it’s ethical or legal. I think it violates the Hatch Act,” one person told NBC.

“They went in and manipulated my out-of-office reply. I guess they’re now making us all guilty of violating the Hatch Act,” another Education Department employee said.

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The emails reportedly were changed to read: “Thank you for contacting me. On September 10, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to the lapse of appropriations, I am currently in furlough status. I will respond to emails once government functions resume.”

Employees who spoke to NBC News said even after they changed their out-of-office message back to the original, they were automatically altered again.

NBC News added it had reported on Wednesday “that some employees at federal agencies were being offered partisan language blaming Democrats for the shutdown to use as their out-of-office messages. A number of federal websites also now display language going after Democrats or the ‘radical left.'”

READ MORE: Trump Boasts of Meeting With Project 2025 Architect to Cut ‘Democrat Agencies’

Calling the administration’s actions “an unusually overt show of partisan messaging,” Politico reported that some ethics experts say that they may violate federal law.

In addition to out-of-office email messages, a “deluge of statements bashing Democrats began hours before the shutdown Tuesday with a single red pop-up posted to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s website. ‘The radical left are going to shut down the government,’ the page read.”

A banner atop the Department of Justice’s website currently reads: “Democrats have shut down the government.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website states: “Due to the Radical Left Democrat shutdown, this government website will not be updated during the funding lapse. President Trump has made it clear he wants to keep the government open and support those who feed, fuel, and clothe the American people.”

Democrats are calling for an investigation.

“House Oversight Committee ranking member Robert Garcia (D-CA) sent a letter Thursday demanding an investigation into the use of federal websites to promote Republican political points during the government shutdown,” the Washington Examiner reported. “The letter cites the Hatch Act, which imposes restrictions on political activity by the federal government.”

READ MORE: ‘More Pain Will Be Inflicted’: Mike Johnson Threatens Blue States After Shutdown

 

Image via Reuters

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Leavitt Explains White House Claim ‘Illegals’ Get Free Health Care—Experts Disagree

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12 hours ago

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October 2, 2025

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For weeks, the Trump administration has been claiming that undocumented immigrants — “illegals,” it says — have been getting free health care, and blaming the Biden administration for it. The President has said Democrats have shut down the government because they want to spend $1 trillion on health care for “illegals.”

Experts disagree.

Vice President JD Vance has come under fire for claiming on Wednesday that wait times at emergency rooms have increased because “illegals” are getting free health care.

On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked if emergency rooms should be checking immigration status before accepting a dying patient.

READ MORE: Trump Boasts of Meeting With Project 2025 Architect to Cut ‘Democrat Agencies’

After she declined to offer an opinion, deferring to legal and medical experts, the reporter asked, “do you think that illegal aliens should receive Medicaid benefits?”

She replied: “Medicaid benefits that go to the most vulnerable people in our country? Medicaid benefits that were designed to help low income families and Americans in our country?”

Leavitt claimed, falsely, that the Biden administration funneled millions of “illegal aliens” into a program called Protective Temporary Status (TPS) and granted them access to those “free benefits.”

The Biden administration “allowed tens of millions of illegal aliens from all over the world to come into our country, yes, and they paroled them into the system,” Leavitt claimed, calling it a “complete abuse of our immigration system. She added that “they slapped a Band-Aid on these illegals, they called it Temporary Protective Status [sic], and then they allowed those illegals, from all over the world, to get free benefits.”

READ MORE: ‘More Pain Will Be Inflicted’: Mike Johnson Threatens Blue States After Shutdown

But her claim is false, according to several expert sources: TPS beneficiaries are not entitled to Medicaid or other similar federal government benefits.

“Some immigrants,” KFF last month noted, “such as those with temporary protected status, are lawfully present but do not have a qualified status and are not eligible to enroll in Medicaid or CHIP regardless of their length of time in the country.”

“Beneficiaries are not eligible for any public assistance by virtue of their TPS status,” according to the American Immigration Council.

READ MORE: ‘Extortion, Plain and Simple’: Trump Admin Ripped for $18B NYC Funds Freeze

Image via Reuters 

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