Governors of 2 states refuse to resettle Syrian refugees.
By Raif Karerat
One day after Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan and Gov. Robert Bentley of Alabama, both Republicans, responded to the attacks in Paris by declaring that their states would not be open to refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria, the Islamic State warned in a new video Monday that countries taking part in air strikes against Syria would suffer the same fate as France, and threatened to attack Washington, DC.
The video, which appeared on a site used by Islamic State to post its messages, begins with news footage of the aftermath of Friday’s Paris shootings in which at least 129 people were killed, according to Reuters.
“We say to the states that take part in the crusader campaign that, by God, you will have a day, God willing, like France’s and by God, as we struck France in the center of its abode in Paris, then we swear that we will strike America at its center in Washington,” said the man in the video, who identified himself as “Al Ghareeb the Algerian.”
He also warned Europe that the terror organization’s onslaught was far from over.
“I say to the European countries that we are coming, coming with booby traps and explosives, coming with explosive belts and (gun) silencers and you will be unable to stop us because today we are much stronger than before,” he added.
Stateside, Gov. Bentley released a statement that flatly revealed no Syrian refugees would be allowed to settle in his state at any point in the near future.
“As your Governor, I will not stand complicit to a policy that places the citizens of Alabama in harm’s way,” he pontificated. “The acts of terror committed over the weekend are a tragic reminder to the world that evil exists and takes the form of terrorists who seek to destroy the basic freedoms we will always fight to preserve.”
According to the Washington Post, states have limited power to control the flow of foreigners into their states, with that authority reserved largely to the federal government under the Constitution. In early September, the Obama administration revealed it would accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees during the federal government’s 2015 fiscal year.