Update: CNN has announced that as of 3:25 p.m., there are now 15 states refusing to accept Syrian refugees.
Governors across the country are rushing to close their state’s doors to Syrian refugees in the wake of the terrorist attacks on Paris last week that were linked ti Islamic State terrorists.
According to the Washington Post, the list of states refusing to resettle Syrian refugees has now grown to 11, even as President Obama has denounced the move, calling it “shameful.” In September, Digital Journal reported the White House had announced the U.S. would accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees.
The Governors of Illinois, Ohio, Florida, Arizona, Indiana, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Michigan, Alabama, Texas, and Arkansas — all of them Republicans, have said they will seek ways to stop the relocation of Syrian refugees out of fears that violent extremists, posing as refugees would get into the country.
The move by Republican governor’s has quickly made the Syrian refugee question a political hot-potato. Republican presidential candidate Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana was the first of the GOP candidates to block refugees from entering his state.
“I just signed an Executive Order instructing state agencies to take all available steps to stop the relocation of Syrian refugees to LA,” Jindal tweeted.
Other GOP presidential candidates have also jumped on the bandwagon, including Dr. Ben Carson. The Daily Beast is reporting Carson says he will call on Congress to defund President Obama’s refugee policy.
But the most vocal GOP presidential candidate is Donald Trump. Responding to the Paris attacks, Trump says if Parisians were allowed to carry guns, the attacks would have come out very differently, says the Slate. “When you look at Paris, you know, the toughest gun laws in the world, nobody had guns except for the bad guys, nobody,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Beaumont, Texas, on Saturday.
As far as what should be done in the United States, Trump would close all mosques.The Huffington Post quoted Trump on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” as saying “I would hate to do it, but it’s something you’re going to have to strongly consider, because some of the ideas and some of the hatred is coming from these areas,” citing Bernard Cazeneuve, French Interior Minister, who called for the dissolution of “mosques where hate is preached” over the weekend.
However, while many states are saying they will refuse to take in Syrian refugees, there may be little they can do because they have limited power in the matter, says Florida Gov. Rick Scott. “It is our understanding that the state does not have the authority to prevent the federal government from funding the relocation of these Syrian refugees to Florida even without state support,” he said in a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
