The Governors of 27 states, including Nebraska and Iowa, say their states won’t accept Syrian refugees following terrorist attacks in Paris.
But a UNO political scientist says those states have no choice. Dr. Lana Obradovic is director of UNO’s Holocaust and Genocide Studies Program. She says since immigration law is federal, states can’t keep Syrian refugees out.
"These attempts seem to be largely political. They don’t have much legal weight. Now, states can try to block people from getting services once they are here. They can certainly make it difficult for the refugee resettlement process to happen. But it just seems that states do not understand, or these governors don’t understand, that they don’t have that power."
Obradovic says refugees are thoroughly vetted before coming to the U.S., and more than half of the Syrian refugees are children. And she says the issue of whether to accept the refugees distracts from the fight against ISIS, who the refugees are fleeing from.
The UN’s refugee agency says they’ve submitted more than 22,000 Syrian refugees to the U.S. for resettlement consideration.