Texas has ordered nonprofits to stop helping Syrian refugees, which faith groups say violates religious freedom. https://t.co/DbChFgoH80

— Elizabeth Bruenig (@ebruenig) November 24, 2015

If Abbott’s discomfort with Syrian refugees had remained at the level of gubernatorial grandstanding—keeping in mind the fact that governors lack the authority to deny specific religious or ethnic groups entry into their states—then it would likely not have been more newsworthy than similar reservations expressed by a host of other American governors. But with the letter to nonprofits and other private agencies with refugee resettlement programs, Texas moved into direct opposition to federal law and, some say, threatened the religious liberty of numerous Texan faith groups.

“The letter the HHSC sent, they crossed a line into actual substantive policy steps,” Bee Moorhead, executive director of Texas Impact/Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy, said in a phone call with the New Republic. Texas Impact is the oldest and largest interfaith social action network in Texas, and functions as a membership organization for faith groups doing state-level advocacy and interpreting public policy.