The Paris carnage has prompted as many as 27 of the 50 US States to announce that they will not accept any Syrian refugees, citing concerns to homeland security. Only seven States have offered to accept the refugees.
Most of the States to come out against accommodating the Syrian refugees are Republican-run, and they include louisiana and South Carolina that have Indian-American Governors – Bobby Jindal and Nikki Randhawa Haley.
With several Republican presidential hopefuls asserting that the United States should accept only Christian and not Muslim refugees, President Barack Obama hit back, terming their stand “shameful” and ruling out any “religious test” for refugees fleeing the war-torn Syria.
“The values that we’re fighting against ISIl for is precisely that we don’t discriminate against people because of their faith, that we don’t kill people different than us,” Obama told reporters at the end of the G-20 summit in Trukey. “It is good to remember that the United States does not have a religious test.”
The Obama administration had announced in September that the United States would receive 10,000 Syrian refugees through next year. So far, only 1,500 have been accommodated.
Save for the Democrat-ruled New Hampshire, all the other 26 States opposing the Syrian refugees are run by Republican Governors and they started making public announcements and issuing executive orders following the Paris attacks last Friday.
Texas is one of the major States to announce it would not accept any Syrian refugees, with Governor Greg Abbott tweeting: “Security comes first.” He demanded that the US federal Government act likewise.
In a letter to President Obama, Abbott cited the Paris attacks and said: “American humanitarian compassion could be exploited to expose Americans to similar deadly danger.”
In louisiana, Governor Jindal, who is also in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, signed an executive order directing official agencies to “take all available steps” to stop the relocation of Syrian refugees in the State.
In Georgia, Governor Nathan Deal said his State would not accept Syrian refugees “until the federal government and Congress conducts a thorough review of current screening procedures and background checks”.
The Washington-based council on American-Islamic Relations denounced the announcement by Governors, saying: “Defeating ISIS involves projecting American ideals to the world. Governors who reject those fleeing war and persecution abandon our ideals and instead project our fears to the world.”