Michigan's Snyder Fights PR Battle on Refugees

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DETROIT, MI - Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder further distanced himself from Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump in a guest editorial published in Sunday’s Detroit Free Press that answered an earlier editorial linking the governor’s request for a review of immigration policies to Trump’s controversial statements on Muslim refugees.

Last week, Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” His remarks were widely condemned, including by Snyder, who told WWJ last week that Trump’s proposal is “absolutely inappropriate” and wrote in his editorial Sunday that the candidate’s “statements are inconsistent with our spirit of inclusion.”

“Just as terrorists who betray cherished values in the name of Islam do not speak for the 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, Donald Trump does not speak for me, the state of Michigan, nor the entire Republican Party,” Snyder began.

Related

• As Trump Stirs Islamophobia, Michigan Muslims Worry
• ‘I‘m Not Trump’: Snyder on Muslim Refugees
• Read Obama’s ‘Sweet Welcome’ to Troy-Bound Syrian

Snyder started a stampede among governors closing their states’ doors to Syrian refugees after the Paris terror attacks when he paused Michigan’s refugee attraction program and asked the federal government to review screening processes.

He and other members of the National Governors Association’s Council of Governors will discuss screening at a meeting Tuesday. Two weeks ago, Snyder said he thinks a bipartisan coalition of state, local and federal authorities involved in developing security vetting processes for refugees.

“These comments are inappropriate, and go against my vision for the need to reinvent Michigan,” he wrote. “We strongly value immigrants’ ideas and entrepreneurial spirit to help us do that.”

As a “vocal advocate for diversity,” Snyder said he wants “to continue to make Michigan a home for immigrants, including refugees who are escaping violence and oppression in all corners of the world.”

The governor pointed out, among other things, that he established the Michigan Office for New Americans to assist in immigrant assimilation; that Michigan has the highest population of Arab-Americans in the country; and that Michigan became the new home to 616,786 immigrants in 2013; and welcomed 188 Syrian refugees in 2014, third behind California (218) and Texas (194).