OLYMPIA — More than a dozen Senate Republicans on Wednesday sent a letter to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, asking him to ensure that Syrian refugees are properly vetted before the state agrees to accept them.
The letter from the 14 lawmakers says the state should pause potential resettlement efforts until more is known about the vetting process at the federal level.
Earlier this week, Inslee said the state would welcome Syrian refugees if the federal government ultimately decides the state will receive any of the 10,000 people that President Barack Obama’s administration has pledged to resettle over the next year. At this point, it is unknown how many Syrian refugees could be resettled in the state. Inslee, who criticized other governors who have threatened to stop accepting refugees following last week’s terror attacks in Paris, has noted that governors lack the authority to grant or deny entry for refugees.
The letter from the lawmakers says that the state should be “welcoming and gracious, especially to those who come here, legally, from war-torn regions. But not at the expense of the safety of the citizens of the state.”
“Please, Governor Inslee, pause, and take the time to assure the people of this state that the federal government is carefully vetting all who enter this nation to ensure that the bloodshed of Paris will not happen in the concert halls and cafes of our cities and towns,” the letter reads.
Inslee spokesman David Postman wrote in an email that there’s no disagreement on the point related to the safety of the state, noting that the governor was on a conference call with top federal officials Tuesday “making sure they understood how important this is to all governors and residents of the United States.”
Postman argued that the lawmakers who sent the letter “want to create a debate about whether refugees come here.”
“That’s out of our hands and they know that,” he wrote. “What this is, unfortunately, is more of the arguments we’ve been hearing that the governor should add his voice to the divisive attacks we’ve heard from others.”
The lawmakers who signed the letter to Inslee are: Sens. Steve O’Ban, Jim Honeyford, Curtis King, Judy Warnick, Doug Ericksen, Barbara Bailey, Randy Becker, Jan Angel, Ann Rivers, Don Benton, Mark Schoesler, Bruce Dammeier, Kirk Pearson and Mike Padden.
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