Syrian Refugees Diverted to Connecticut After Being Turned Away in Indiana

A Syrian refugee family will call New Haven, Conn. its home for now after being turned away from Indiana.

Gov. Dannel Malloy welcomed the family personally to Connecticut and explained the situation about why the three were diverted.

“I told them that people in the United States are generous and good people, but sometimes things happen elsewhere that cause people to forget about their generosity… but that will return to the rest of people in due course.”

The family of three fled war-torn Syria and has been living in Jordan for the past four years, Malloy said. The son wasn’t even a year old when the family left Syria.

The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration sent a letter to Exodus Refugee Immigration Inc. notifying them that a family that was scheduled to arrive Nov. 19 would be turned away.

The letter went on to say that all subsequent Syrian arrivals would be suspended or redirected to a state that was willing to accept them.

Exodus Refugee Immigration then began searching for a new home for the family.

It turned to Episcopal Migration Ministries, which placed a call with Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services in New Haven, according to the New York Times.

The denial comes after Indiana Gov. Mike Pence directed all state agencies to suspend resettlement of all additional Syrian refugees. Pence gave the order after the deadly attack in Paris.

The order is in effect, “...pending assurances from the federal government that proper security measures have been achieved,” Pence said in a statement.

Malloy criticized Pence specifically.

“This is the same guy who signed a homophobic bill in the spring… I’m’ not surprised by anything the governor does,” Malloy said.

It’s not the first time Malloy and Pence have had a public disagreement. Malloy banned state-funded travel to Indiana after that state passed a law that many felt would allow businesses to discriminate against gay and lesbian people.

Malloy lifted the ban after the state adjusted legislation to provide protections to LGBT individuals.

Malloy said Monday that Connecticut would still accept refugees from Syria.

A total of 26 governors have made statements similar to Pence, in addition to a number of GOP presidential candidates and members of Congress.

Some legal experts have questioned whether governors have the authority to ban refugees.

President Barack Obama criticized GOP members who have said refugees could pose a security threat.

“Apparently they are scared of widows and orphans coming into the United States of America,” he said, according to CNN. “At first, they were too scared of the press being too tough on them in the debates. Now they are scared of 3-year-old orphans. That doesn’t seem so tough to me.”

Republican leaders in Connecticut questioned Malloy’s plan to allow Syrian refugees into the state.

The process to get into the United States as a refugee is one of the hardest and most controlled in the world, Malloy said. Prospective refugees must go through multiple agencies in a process that typically takes between 12 and 18 months.

“No one is taking a boat from Syria… to get to our shores,” he said.

Connecticut House Republican Leader Themis Klarides said in a statement that federal authorities should play the lead role in determining who enters the country, but that state homeland security experts and public safety officials must also weigh in.

“We cannot rely solely on people at the federal level to tell us who should be allowed in and where they would be housed – we need to hear from Connecticut’s own experts to come up with a safe, secure plan,’’ Klarides said.