POLL: Should New York Welcome Syrian Refugees?

Written by BEA KARNES (Patch Staff) and ALFRED BRANCH (Patch Staff)

A political firestorm is raging in the United States over the acceptance of Syrian refugees into the country after one of the terrorists who carried out last week’s attacks in Paris was found to carry a Syrian passport. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the passport was fake.

More than half of the nation’s governors have announced that Syrian refugees are not welcome in their states, and some in New York are voicing similar sentiments. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has not formally addressed the issue, but told a group of Harvard University students Tuesday that states do not have the constitutional right to reject refugees if the federal government moves to place them there.

“It’s up to the federal government,” Cuomo told the students. “If the federal government lets refugees in and places them in your state, the Governor has no authority to turn them down.”

However, Cuomo added that he understands concerns over safety and that the federal government “needs to make sure it’s doing the screening and the people that are coming in are safe and the federal government has to say ’we are capable of doing that.’”

Close to 50 Syrian refugees already have resettled in New York, according to reports, and the Obama Administration says it hopes to bring 10,000 into the U.S., a relatively small number compared to Europe which is trying to absorb hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.

Some of the governors are calling on the federal government to stop, or at least suspend, the in flux of Syrian refugees, and Congress is weighing what kind of bill to vote on over the issue. U.S. News & World Report writes that Republicans are pushing the measure.

“This is a moment where it is better to be safe than to be sorry, so we think the prudent, the responsible thing is to take a pause in this particular aspect of this refugee program in order to verify that terrorists are not trying to infiltrate the refugee population,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told the publication.

How do you feel about the issue? Should the U.S., and by extension New York, welcome Syrian refugees? Make your voice heard by voting in our poll, and commenting below this article.

Patch file photo of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo