Arkansas News Bureau
jlyon@arkansasnews.com
Nov 16, 2015
LITTLE ROCK — Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Monday he opposes placing Syrian refugees in Arkansas.
“As governor, I oppose any facility or installation in Arkansas being used as a Syrian refugee center. Many of the Syrian refugees are fleeing violence in their own country, but Europe, Asia or Africa are logically the best places for resettlement or for temporary asylum,” Hutchinson said in a statement issued by his office.
The governor, who is on a trade mission to China and Japan, said Syria “is a war-torn country, and the United States will support our European friends in fighting ISIL in Syria and elsewhere; however, this is not the right strategy for the United States to become a permanent place of relocation.”
Hutchinson added, “The hardships facing these refugees and their families are beyond most of our understanding, and my thoughts and prayers are with them, but I will not support a policy that is not the best solution and that poses risk to Arkansans.”
Several other Republican governors have made similar statements following Friday’s deadly attacks in Paris. Greg Abbott of Texas, Mike Pence of Indiana, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Phil Bryant of Mississippi said Monday they would oppose accepting Syrian refugees, following similar statements Sunday by Rick Snyder of Michigan and Robert Bentley of Alabama.
The governors have expressed safety concerns following reports that at least one of the Paris attackers may have posed as a Syrian refugee. Officials have said a Syrian passport found at the Stade de France football stadium, the scene of one of the attacks, was issued to a man who registered as a refugee in October on the Greek island of Leros and applied for asylum in Serbia a few days later.
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz have said the U.S. should give preferential treatment to Syrian refugees who are Christian. President Barack Obama on Monday criticized the idea without mentioning anyone by name.
“When I hear folks say that, ‘Well, maybe we should just admit the Christians but not the Muslims,’ when I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which person who’s fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted, when some of those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection when they were fleeing political persecution, that’s shameful,” Obama said in a news conference at the G20 summit in Turkey.
The president also said the U.S. will continue to accept refugees from Syria and other countries provided they can pass rigorous screening and security checks.
“Slamming the door in their faces would be a betrayal of our values,” he said.
Obama also called the Paris attacks “a terrible and sickening setback” in the fight against the Islamic State but said the current strategy ultimately will work and said he does not favor sending ground troops into the region.
U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said in a statement Monday, “President Obama continues to see the world as he wants it to be, not as it it. The barbaric attacks in Paris are more than a ‘setback’. They are a sign ISIS is not contained and that the President’s policy of confusion, half-measures, and delay isn’t working.”
Cotton said the fight against ISIS is “under-resourced and unfocused.”
“And it is too reliant on President Obama’s political talking points rather than on sound policy and advice from our military commanders. It’s time for America to lead and stop ISIS abroad so it doesn’t attack us at home,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Hot Springs, said Monday, “I am sickened by not only these attacks, but also by President Barack Obama’s weak response. Just hours before the French capital came under attack, he absurdly claimed Daesh had been ‘contained.’ And then hours afterwards, the president released detainees from Guantanamo Bay.”
Westerman said the released detainees “are radicalized Muslims who history has shown are likely to end up back on the battlefield, killing innocent men, women, and children. America must show strength and stand with our French allies. We must stop the flow of radicalized Syrian refugees to America. We must put the safety of America and our allies above all else.”
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