Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said Monday the state should take a cautious approach toward a resettlement program that has already brought dozens of refugees from war-torn Syria to Georgia.
Reed, a Democrat who is usually one of the region’s most forceful advocates of a welcoming policy to refugees, said the federal government’s vetting of Syrian refugees should be “significantly enhanced and changed” in the wake of the terror attacks in Paris that left at least 129 people dead and scores more wounded.
French officials said the coordinated terror attacks that swept through the city on Friday were organized in parts of Syria seized by the Islamic State terror group.
“We’re going to have to redouble our efforts of vetting the individuals that come into the United States of America in a way that we would not have before,” said Reed. “The United States government is responsible for that vetting process and I think this needs to be reviewed and redoubled. And we cannot proceed status quo.”
Georgia – the eight largest state with a population of 10 million – accepted the ninth largest number of refugees among states last fiscal year at 2,694. That includes 59 of the more than 1,900 Syrian refugees who arrived on U.S. soil since the bloody conflict there began.
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