Of the many ripple effects likely to come out the deadly Daesh (ISIS) attacks on Paris this weekend, the closing of borders to refugees and asylum seekers is one that's unfortunately pretty surefire. The phenomenon has already jumped over to the US, where two states declared this week they's no longer be accepting incoming Syrians.
Gov. Robert J. Bentley and Gov. Rick Snyder—both Republicans from Alabama and Michigan—declared Sunday their states would not accommodate the impending arrival of new Syrian refugees coming to the US in the coming months, in an apparent response to the French attacks Friday.
There are a few complexities with these statements. For one thing, Michigan has a robust Arab-American community already—in the past year, one agency resettled 200 Syrian refugees there, the New York Times reports. In Alabama, there's also a active refugee intake center, but Bentley says it has so far not accepted anyone.
Though it's only Michigan and Alabama now, the move could represent a growing trend in the US. In his statement about the closing of his own state, Bentley urged a shift in US State Department policy, who earlier this year agreed to resettle more refugees in the wake of the massive influx hitting Europe.
Meanwhile, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana asked Washington to provide the number of Syrian refugees already resettled in the US. Ad it turns out—not many.
New Orlean station WWL-TV was given the answer by one US State Department official, who said it was 14.
