MONTGOMERY, Ala., Nov. 16 (UPI) — The governors of Alabama, Michigan, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Indiana and Massachusetts have said they would oppose any attempts to relocate Syrian refugees to their states days after a terror attack tied to Syria killed at least 129 people in Paris. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley issued a statement Sunday saying Syrian migrants would not be welcome.
“We refuse Syrian refugees,” he reinforced in a Twitter message the same day.
Bentley’s statement came hours after Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said in a statement of his own that his state would not accept Syrian refugees until the U.S. Department of Homeland Security reviewed its procedures.
“Michigan is a welcoming state and we are proud of our rich history of immigration,” Snyder said, “but our first priority is protecting the safety of our residents.”
Bentley did not explain how he would stop the federal government from relocating anyone emigrating from Syria. Although the U.S. State Department’s nine domestic refugee processing centers is in Mobile, Ala., his statement noted no refugees from Syria have settled in Alabama thus far, although neighboring states have processed some.
His statement was released after Ben Rhodes, White House deputy national security advisor, said in a televised interview the bombings in Paris would not change U.S. policy on accepting refugees of the ongoing civil war in Syria.
“We have very expansive screening procedures for all Syrian refugees who have come to the United States. There’s a very careful vetting process that includes our intelligence community, our national Counterterrorism Center [and] the Department of Homeland Security, so we can make sure that we’re carefully screening anybody who comes to the United States,” Rhodes told Meet the Press Sunday.
Concern about the influx of migrants from Syria was heightened over the weekend after it was revealed one of the militants involved in the Paris attacks may have posed as a Syrian refugee in Turkey.
