Minnesota would let Syrian refugees in

ST. PAUL -- Minnesota is not one of a handful of states that will refuse entry of Syrian refugees.

Gov. Mark Dayton issued a statement Monday saying he is willing to accept refugees, given what he learned from the White House.

“My first priority is to protect the safety of the people of Minnesota," Democrat Dayton said. "I have been assured by the White House that all refugees are subject to the highest level of security checks of any category of traveler to the United States.”

No refugees are known to have arrived in Minnesota.

Five governors Monday said they would not allow Syrian refugees to be settled in their states, joining Alabama and Michigan. The seven governors contend it is too dangerous to let in people from that war-torn country following Friday's deadly Paris attacks.

Republican Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas, Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, Mike Pence of Indiana, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Phil Bryant of Mississippi said their states would no longer help support the Obama administration's goal of accepting 10,000 Syrian refugees in the coming years.

"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," Abbott said in an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday. "Neither you nor any federal official can guarantee that Syrian refugees will not be part of any terroristic activity."

However, it was unclear what authority governors had to stop admitting refugees into their states, legal experts said.

"The federal government has the power over immigration," said Deborah Anker, a professor of law at Harvard Law School who specializes in immigration issues. "If they admit Syrian refugees, they're here. People aren't going to the (state) border. The federal government is going to bring them in."

The decisions to stop accepting refugees from Syria came three days after gunmen and suicide bombers believed to be part of the Islamic State militant group killed 129 people in a series of coordinated attacks in Paris, the worst such event in France since World War Two.

A Syrian passport found near the body of one of the attackers showed that its holder passed through Greece in October, raising concern that the attackers had entered Europe amid the wave of refugees fleeing that country's four-year civil war.

The United States admitted 1,682 Syrian refugees in the federal fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, a sharp jump from the 105 admitted a year earlier. Texas, California and Michigan accepted the largest number of people fleeing the war.

Secretary of State John Kerry in September said the United States would increase the number of refugees it takes in from all nations by 15,000 per year over the next two years, bringing the total to 100,000 a year by 2017.

Some of the charitable groups that work to resettle refugees criticized the moves, saying that the governors are wrongly targeting people who are fleeing violence, not trying to spread it.

"For these governors to falsely assert that the U.S. refugee admissions program places their states at risk is utterly preposterous," the Reverend John McCullough, chief executive of the Church World Service, one of nine charitable groups that works with the U.S.'s Office of Refugee Resettlement, said in a statement.

Mark Hetfield, chief executive of the Jewish nonprofit refugee service HIAS questioned the idea that refugees posed a threat.

"As a rule, refugees do not bring terror, they flee terror," Hetfield said. "Refugees resettled to the United States are already subject to multiple layers of security screenings."

Alabama and Michigan said they would no longer accept Syrian refugees on Sunday.

Michigan's Republican governor, Rick Snyder, described his state, which has a large Arab-American population, as "welcoming" but said the risk associated with admitting Syrian refugees was too high.

"Our first priority is protecting the safety of our residents," Snyder said on Sunday. "Given the terrible situation in Paris, I've directed that we put on hold our efforts to accept new refugees until the U.S. Department of Homeland Security completes a full review of security clearances and procedures."

The governors said they were ordering their state departments of health and human services to stop working with Syrian refugees.

Jindal also noted that Louisiana State Police were aware of a Syrian refugee already relocated within the state, and directed law enforcement to monitor for possible threats. Jindal is a Republican candidate for president.