--- title: Governors Vow to Block Syrian Refugees After Paris Attacks description: A growing number of U.S. governors are refusing to admit Syrian refugees after the terrorist attacks in Paris canonical: https://time.com/4114480/governors-vow-to-block-syrian-refugees-after-paris-attacks/ author: Alex Altman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-16T16:53:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T22:31:57.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Governors Vow to Block Syrian Refugees After Paris Attacks og:description: "Opening our door to them exposes our fellow Americans to unacceptable peril." og:url: https://time.com/4114480/governors-vow-to-block-syrian-refugees-after-paris-attacks/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23e9e7e668f07ae6/698871700b72e37a1a6e6db5/syrian-refugees-governers-us.jpg?branch=production&width=616&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 616 og:image:height: 347 og:image:alt: GREECE-EUROPE-MIGRANTS og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Governors Vow to Block Syrian Refugees After Paris Attacks twitter:description: "Opening our door to them exposes our fellow Americans to unacceptable peril." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23e9e7e668f07ae6/698871700b72e37a1a6e6db5/syrian-refugees-governers-us.jpg?branch=production&width=616&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Governors Vow to Block Syrian Refugees After Paris Attacks > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Alex Altman](https://time.com/author/alex-altman/)  ## Alex Altman Altman is the executive features editor and deputy Washington bureau chief at TIME. Updated: Dec 13, 2023 10:31 PM UTCPublished: Nov 16, 2015 4:53 PM UTC  A family of Syrian refugees arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos on Nov. 17, 2015. A family of Syrian refugees arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos on Nov. 17, 2015. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images  by [Alex Altman](https://time.com/author/alex-altman/)  ## Alex Altman Altman is the executive features editor and deputy Washington bureau chief at TIME. Updated: Dec 13, 2023 10:31 PM UTCPublished: Nov 16, 2015 4:53 PM UTC A growing number of U.S. governors are refusing to admit Syrian refugees, citing security concerns underscored by the terrorist attacks in Paris. The Republican governors of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Texas, Mississippi and Florida said over the weekend and on Monday morning that they would block Syrian refugees from being resettled in their states. Meantime, the governors of Illinois and Indiana said they were temporarily suspending any resettlements and the governor of Massachusetts said he is “not interested” in accepting refugees “as of right now.”  Greg Abbott, governor of Texas, speaks during an interview in New York City on July 14, 2015 Bloomberg/Getty Images “Texas cannot participate in any program that will result in Syrian refugees — any one of whom could be connected to terrorism — being resettled in Texas,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott wrote in [a letter to President Obama](http://gov.texas.gov/files/press-office/SyrianRefugees%5FBarackObama11162015.pdf) on Monday. “Neither you nor any federal official can guarantee that Syrian refugees will not be part of any terroristic activity. As such, opening our door to them irresponsibly exposes our fellow Americans to unacceptable peril.” Arkansas’ Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson, announced the news in a tweet Monday: > [](https://twitter.com/AsaHutchinson/status/666281290883166208) European officials have said one of [the members of the terrorist cell](http://time.com/4114167/paris-attacks-suspects/?xid=homepage) that killed at least 132 people in the Nov. 13 attacks was a Syrian citizen who entered the continent amid the stream of refugees fleeing the war-torn nation. The man, identified as Ahmad al-Mohammad, registered as an asylum seeker on the Greek island of Leros on Oct. 3\. He blew himself up at the edge of the Stade de France on Friday night and was identified by his fingerprints. The U.S. has resettled about 1,800 refugees from Syria so far in 2015, according to statistics compiled by the State Department. The White House has pledged to admit at least 10,000 more over the fiscal year that began Oct. 1\. That’s a sharp uptick, but far less than the number received by wealthy Western nations like Germany. Top Democratic leaders have urged the U.S. to take on a greater role in easing the humanitarian crisis sparked by the war in Syria. Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, said in September that the U.S. should increase its target to admitting 65,000 Syrian refugees, who are fleeing due to wide-scale violence perpetrated in part by the same jihadist groups behind the Paris massacre. “We’re facing the worst refugee crisis since the end of World War II and I think the United States has to do more,” the former Secretary of State [said](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-u-s-should-take-65000-syrian-refugees/). “I would like to see us move from what is a good start with 10,000 to 65,000 and begin immediately to put into place the mechanisms for vetting the people that we would take in.” But in times of fear, security concerns tend to trump compassion. And in the wake of the Paris attacks, the politics of admitting refugees has just gotten much trickier. **Read Next:** [_Obama Hits Bush and Cruz Over Syrian Refugees_](http://time.com/4114505/paris-attacks-barack-obama-jeb-bush-ted-cruz/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4114480/governors-vow-to-block-syrian-refugees-after-paris-attacks/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4114480/governors-vow-to-block-syrian-refugees-after-paris-attacks/"},"headline":"Governors Vow to Block Syrian Refugees After Paris Attacks","datePublished":"2015-11-16T16:53:53.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T22:31:57.000Z","description":"About two dozen so far","url":"https://time.com/4114480/governors-vow-to-block-syrian-refugees-after-paris-attacks/","keywords":["paris attacks","Texas","alabama","Michigan","Refugees","States","Arkansas"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23e9e7e668f07ae6/698871700b72e37a1a6e6db5/syrian-refugees-governers-us.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Altman","jobTitle":"Altman is the executive features editor and deputy Washington bureau chief at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/alex-altman/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23e9e7e668f07ae6/698871700b72e37a1a6e6db5/syrian-refugees-governers-us.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GREECE-EUROPE-MIGRANTS","caption":"A family of Syrian refugees arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos on Nov. 17, 2015.","creditText":"Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/paris-attacks/","name":"paris attacks"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4114480/governors-vow-to-block-syrian-refugees-after-paris-attacks/","name":"Governors Vow to Block Syrian Refugees After Paris Attacks"}}]}] ```