Following attacks in Egypt, Beirut and Paris that killed hundreds, the United States should place a moratorium on Syrian refugees, Mayor John Cranley said in a Nov. 16 statement.
“I understand the dire circumstances Syrian refugees face because I personally visited a refugee camp in Jordan last summer,” Cranley said in that statement. “However, the federal government should halt its actions until the American people can be assured that exhaustive vetting has occurred.”
Cranley’s statement comes weeks after the rollout of a program he says is designed to make Cincinnati the most welcoming city in the country for immigrants. At least one Syrian refugee family of nine has already settled in Cincinnati. But recent terrorist attacks have radically shifted the conversation around refugees in the U.S., despite the fact that the U.S. State Department’s vetting process for refugees takes months or even years.
Bombings and shootings carried out by followers of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Beirut and Egypt last week claimed hundreds of lives. A subsequent attack in Paris killed 129 on Nov. 13, garnering new levels of attention to the terrorist group. Those attacks have led some politicians, including Republican presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, to oppose accepting Syrians .
“We’re not bringing ISIS into this country,” Kasich said at a GOP presidential candidate summit in Florida the day after the Paris attacks, explaining that he opposed more Syrain refugees in the U.S. and Ohio until a better vetting process is created.
Other Republican governors have also protested refugees arriving in their states. These protests are largely symbolic, however. Acceptance of refugees is a federal matter; governors and mayors have no formal say in resettlement policies.
At least eight people carried out the Paris attacks. Most were French, according to investigators, but at least one was from Syria.
ISIS has gained control of a swath of Syria and Iraq populated by about 8 million people thanks to an ongoing civil war there. The group has murdered thousands as it seeks to consolidate power over portions of Syria and Iraq, driving an estimated 4 million Syrians out of the country as refugees.
Most of those refugees have taken shelter in nearby European states such as France and Germany. However, the United States has agreed to take on 10,000 of the fleeing Syrians.
Not all politicians have called for rejection of the refugees. Cincinnati City Council Democrats Chris Seelbach and Yvette Simpson decried Cranley’s move. And Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said that city would welcome refugees in a recent statement.
This article appears in Nov 18-24, 2015.