Republicans from over half of the states of America have objected to the acceptance of Syrian refugees in the country after attacks in Paris left 129 dead on Friday, 13 November.
Twenty-five states that have Republican governors swore to obstruct the entry of Syrian refugees into their states, opposing President Barack Obama's proposal to relocate 10,000 Syrian refugees.
The Republicans are arguing that the safety of the United States would be at stake if Obama permits more Syrian refugees to take shelter in the country.
Currently, the United States is reportedly home to 1,900 Syrian refugees that the former had accepted since 2011.
Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas, and some other states are among those who have opposed Obama's proposal. Of these, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Texas are already home to many of those 1,900 Syrians.
"I'm not interested in accepting refugees from Syria," Charlie Baker, a Republican and Governor of Massachusetts, said. "We would have to be very cautious about accepting folks without knowing a lot more about what the federal government's plan looks like."
During the G-20 summit meeting in Turkey, Obama without taking any name said that some of the governors, who are objecting the entry of Syrian refugees, are themselves immigrants in the United States. The remark is thought to have been directed at Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who was born in Canada and whose father fled Cuba and settled in the United States, The New York Times reported.
"Who in their right mind would want to bring over tens of thousands of Syrian refugees, when we cannot determine, when the administration cannot determine, who is and isn't a terrorist," Cruz asked, while campaigning in Charleston.
A spokeswoman of Cruz said that he would introduce a bill for keeping the Syrian refugees from entering the United States, although it's unclear if the ban would block only the Muslims or all Syrian refugees from entering the country.
Many Republican candidates and congressional leaders have asked to tighten border security, pointing the illegal border crossings as potential a threat as an undocumented immigration.
"Here's the problem. You allow 10,000 people in. And 9,999 of them are innocent people feeling oppression. And one of them is a well-trained ISIS fighter," he said.
The three Democratic candidates for 2016 US Presidential election supported Obama's proposal to take Syrian refugees. While Hillary Rodham Clinton and Martin O'Malley said they would accept 65,000, Senator Bernie Sanders said he would accept more, but didn't mention the number.
A State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, said that the federal government was "steadfastly committed" to accept 10,000 Syrians, although they haven't made any decision about the legality of the states' position.
