MARSHALL — Lyon County commissioners will be discussing Tuesday whether to give their consent for refugees to be resettled in the county. The issue was raised after President Donald Trump issued a September executive order requiring state and local governments to give written consent before refugees could be resettled in their jurisdictions.

County commissioners said this week that they didn’t yet know whether they would take action on a request from United Community Action Partnership to continue support for refugee resettlement in Lyon County. Some said there are still questions they would want answered before acting on the issue.

“I’m sure this is an issue where we’re going to have people on both sides of the fence with opinions,” said Lyon County Board Chairman Gary Crowley.

“It’s got a complexity to it,” said Commissioner Charlie Sanow.

The county board agenda for Tuesday includes a presentation from UCAP Family Services Director Angela Larson, and a letter from Larson asking commissioners to give their consent to continue accepting refugees. In the letter, Larson said UCAP has worked to help small caseloads of refugees reunite with family members in Lyon County since 2014.

“Our program is a little bit different,” Larson said Friday. UCAP only works with refugees who have a family member they can reunite with. “A lot of people we see are husbands and wives being reunited, parents with children.”

Larson said UCAP is only making requests for consent to resettle refugees in Lyon and Nobles counties because those are the two areas where they work with refugees.

Over the past three years, UCAP has helped a total of 37 refugees from Myanmar and Somalia resettle with family members in Lyon County. Larson said most of the recent refugees have been Karen, from Myanmar. UCAP also helps to make sure refugees get initial resettlement services like referrals to English language and employment programs, and help with school enrollments, Larson’s letter said.

On Sept. 26, President Trump issued an executive order requiring state and local governments to give the federal government written consent to resettle refugees. On Nov. 6, the U.S. Departments of State and Health and Human Services required local resettlement affiliates to give written consent from governors and counties along with their applications to resettle refugees. Starting June 1, the order will apply to all refugees, including those reuniting with family members living in Minnesota, the Minnesota Department of Human Services said in a Dec. 3 notice to counties.

Local resettlement agencies have to submit their placement strategies to the U.S. State Department by the end of this month, the Minnesota Department of Human Services said. If they don’t get consent before then, it’s possible that refugees can’t be resettled there in 2020.

The executive order is an “opt-in” process, so if counties don’t act to give consent, refugees may not be initially placed there. However, after placement, refugees have the right to travel or relocate to the community they wish, the Minnesota Department of Human Services said.

County commissioners said this week they hadn’t yet received a lot of public feedback on the refugee resettlement issue. Some said they also had questions about how to proceed.

“We’re going to need more information on this,” said Commissioner Steve Ritter.

For example, Crowley said, Minnesota is currently part of a lawsuit challenging the president’s executive order. He wondered whether that would affect whether commissioners needed to act on resettlement consent. Commissioner Rick Anderson said he had questions about whether Lyon County would affect surrounding counties if it gave consent for refugee resettlement.

At the same time, Anderson and Sanow said the hard part about discussing refugee resettlement was that some people confuse the issue of resettlement with illegal immigration.

“I know we’re probably going to catch a little grief” from the public, Anderson said. But the two issues are not the same, officials said.

Refugees are people who are forced to flee their home country due to war or violence, and are unable to safely return, Larson’s letter said. Refugees who are resettled in the U.S. are vetted by federal agencies including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the F.B.I. Refugees are given around 20 different assessments, including multiple background and global security checks, and interviews with Homeland Security, the Minnesota Department of Human Services said.

Lyon County will not be the first county in Minnesota to consider giving consent for refugee resettlement. Other counties, including Kandiyohi and Brown counties, also considered requests to allow resettlement. Commissioners in both Kandiyohi and Brown counties voted in December to give written consent for resettlement.

Last month, Gov. Tim Walz also gave his formal consent for refugees to continue to be resettled in Minnesota.