Having apparently semi-realized that barring all Muslim refugees from their states would not fly, what with religious freedom and so forth, some Republicans have moved on to other ways to make sure none of the people fleeing the world's most horrific war zones get to settle in their neck of the woods. As a state already well familiar with the various ways a bigoted government might discourage non-white people from exercising their right to exist even if the Constitution says they're technically allowed to, South Carolina vaults into the lead:
[T]he proposed law would make sponsors — most of whom are religious institutions — legally liable for any and all crimes committed by the refugee.
“A refugee's sponsor shall be strictly liable to a person if…the refugee acted in a reckless, wilful, or grossly negligent manner, committed an act of terrorism as defined by Section 16-23-710(18), or committed one of the violent crimes defined in Section 16-1-60, that resulted in physical harm or injury to a person or damage to or theft of real or personal property,” the bill reads.
The bill’s supporters say its goal is to prevent terrorist attacks perpetrated by refugees, even though only three of 784,000 refugees resettled in America since September 11, 2001 have been arrested for planning terrorist activities (only one was planning an attack in the U.S., but his plans were reportedly “barely credible”).
Oh heavens, three out of 784,000. What a world this would be if only four in every 1 million Christians were unhinged lunatics.
The idea, we shall patiently explain even though you almost certainly don't need it explained, is to frighten religious groups that "sponsor" Muslim refugees into not sponsoring them anymore. Here’s a better idea that would probably result in prosecuting more actual terrorists and terrorist-enablers, as opposed to imaginary ones:
Let's pass a law holding office holders and politicians responsible for any crimes committed by people working in their offices or on their campaigns. So, to use one example, if a man attached to a given presidential campaign travels to Oregon to take part in an armed takeover of federal lands, the man at the top of the ticket gets hauled into court for abetting him. Or if a politician had his picture taken with a nice man who just happened to have issued multiple screeds explaining why it’s justifiable to murder doctors who perform abortions, we could prosecute that politician for helping to legitimize the murder of doctors who perform abortions.
That could work, right? It'd probably cut down on terrorism quite a bit, if we instituted a law like that. It's probably not constitutional, but it's not like anyone gives a particular damn about that anymore.