Governor Cuomo and the leader of the Senate Republicans differ on whether NY State should accept Syrian refugees in light of the French terror attacks.
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“The Governors who say “I will refuse to let the refugees in”…how?”, said Governor Cuomo.
Those opposing the settlement have done so primarily on the grounds that one of the terrorists from the Paris bombing was carrying a Syrian passport and identified as a refugee that had entered continental Europe via Greece in October. In NY, Republican U.S. Rep. Chris Collins and Republican state lawmakers cited the threat of terrorism when they called on Cuomo to reject additional refugees from the war-torn Middle Eastern nation.
Cuomo’s bottom line: As long as the vetting process is as sturdy as the federal government promises, Syrian resettlement is in the great American tradition of welcoming the world’s most desperate immigrants.
The White House meanwhile, which also has said it will go forward with its plan to accept 10,000 refugees next year, held a conference call late Tuesday with 34 governors in an attempt to quell the backlash.
Forty-eight Syrian refugees have settled in NY so far this year.
Taking a different approach, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf said openly yesterday that he will allow Syrian refugees in his state. Cuomo accused them of playing politics with the issue, noting that by law they don’t have any say in the matter.
However, Cuomo qualified his statements made to David Gergen at a forum at Harvard, and said that the federal government needs to make sure it’s adequately screening the refugees, that the question has not been fully answered.
“The problem we’re facing is that you have terrorists from ISIS that say they are embedding within these refugees”, McLaughlin said.
“At the same time, this federal government has to make sure it’s doing the screening and the people who are coming in are safe”. “First of all, when we still have homeless people children and families who have no food etc., and who are Americans, I can’t see helping other. As for women and children, I’m sorry but there are women suicide bombers and what better way than to put them among the refugees just to kill Americans!”
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“We need to do everything possible to secure and protect our citizens in the state of NY”, Sen.
