COLUMBUS- Governor John Kasich has joined the growing number of U.S. governors who are telling the Obama administration they don’t want their states or the nation to accept more Syrian refugees.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
“The governor doesn’t believe the U.S. should accept additional Syrian refugees because security and safety issues cannot be adequately addressed,” Jim Lynch, spokesman for the Republican presidential candidate, told the Columbus Dispatch.
“The governor is writing to the president to ask him to stop, and to ask him to stop resettling them in Ohio. We are also looking at what additional steps Ohio can take to stop resettlement of these refugees.”
However, Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman said Ohio’s largest city still is willing to take them in – conditionally.
“I support accepting Syrian refugees into the city of Columbus, state of Ohio, and the United States, provided they are rigorously screened by the federal authorities,” the Democrat mayor said in a statement to The Dispatch. “The horrific, senseless violence in Paris should cause us to be more resilient against terrorism, but it should not cause us to shut down our borders to those in need of a safe harbor.”
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Ohio saw 48 refugees from Syria in the federal fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to the state Department of Job and Family Services. One of those wound up in Franklin County, 15 in Cuyahoga County and 32 went to Lucas County, which has a relatively large Middle Eastern population.
Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio issued a similar call Monday, saying he’s concerned the government can’t fully check refugees’ backgrounds.
“I have been raising my deep concerns about taking Syrian refugees because of our government’s inability to properly check their backgrounds to know who they are and why they are coming, said Portman, who is a member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. “When I raised this issue in a hearing last month and questioned Administration witnesses about whether the influx of refugees would subject Americans to risk, the answers I got were deeply troubling.”
Kasich is among several governors moving to temporarily halt acceptance of Syrian refugees following Friday’s deadly attacks in Paris. They’re responding to heightened concerns that terrorists might use refugees as cover to sneak across borders.
Immigrant rights groups argue that states don’t have legal authority to block refugees from being resettled.
Congress may address refugee crisis in spending bill.
Meanwhile, Kasich will present his national security strategy in Washington today. His campaign describes it as a plan “for keeping America safe by rebuilding our military, reinvigorating our alliances and recommitting ourselves to our fundamental Western values.”
In Ohio Monday, Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders says the U.S. shouldn’t turn its back on the refugees.
Sanders spoke Monday before an enthusiastic crowd of about 7,000 people on the campus of Cleveland State University.
The Vermont senator began his speech by telling the crowd that the time is now to develop a strategy to destroy the Islamic State in the wake of the attacks that killed 129 people in Paris last week.
Sanders says a coalition that includes Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries must be created to defeat terrorism.