According to White House reporter Gregory Korte, the other states refusing refugees have all accepted fewer than 20 refugees from 2012 through 2014. Alabama resettled 1, Arkansas resettled 1, Indiana resettled 9, Massachusetts resettled 2, and Texas resettled 19.
President Barack Obama announced in September that the U.S. would increase the number of Syrian and other refugees the country will admit in the next to years to 100,000.
Syrian refugees have arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Jersey City, New Jersey, among other areas, in recent months.
The White House insists that proper security measures have already been in place and officials don’t see the need to change anything after the Paris attacks.
“We have very extensive screening procedures for all Syrian refugees who come to the United States,” said White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes on NBC’s Meet the Press. “There is a very careful vetting process that includes our intelligence community, our Counterterrorism Center and the Department of Homeland Security.”
But Rep. Peter King, R-NY, is among the elected officials who believe things need to change.
The member of the House homeland security and intelligence committees said on Fox News Sunday that the administration is “rolling the dice” by taking in Syrian refugees, because there’s no true vetting process due to few government records being available from Syria to confirm the identities of the refugees.
“We don’t know who these people are,” he said.
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