A New Orleans-based news group apologized Monday for its partisan response to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s executive order preventing Syrian refugees from resettling in Louisiana.
The Pelican State’s constitution says that, “during times of emergency … the governor has emergency powers to protect the citizens and property of the state of Louisiana,” Jindal noted in letter Monday. He said he would use those powers to stop Syrian nationals from entering the state, over fears that the Islamic State might try to enter the U.S. by having its members pose as refugees.
The social media feed for NOLA.com, which carries content provided by the Times-Picayune, re-tweeted a report detailing the governor’s announcement, and it added two simple words of political commentary: “No words.”
The NOLA.com Twitter account later deleted the offending tweet, and offered an apology for its partisan commentary.
“An earlier tweet about Bobby Jindal’s executive order on Syrian refugees did not meet our standards for impartiality. The tweet was removed,” the account said Monday afternoon.
Jindal’s executive order comes just days after reported Islamic State-affiliated terrorists launched several deadly attacks on Paris, killing 129 and wounding hundreds more.
Law enforcement officials and intelligence communities around the world are worried that Islamic terrorists have infiltrated the mass of Syrian and Iraqi refugees who have fled the horrors of the Islamic State and the Syrian civil war.
Jindal said that bringing Syrians into America without “proper prior screening and follow-up monitoring could result in a threat to the citizens and property of this state.”
The U.S. government has accepted approximately 1,809 Syrian nationals since Jan. 1, according to the State Department. Exactly 32 states have accepted Syrians in that time, and the biggest number of refugees have landed in California, Texas, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida.
Seventeen states have moved since the attacks on Paris to block the flow of Syrian refugees. Republican governors in 16 states; Illinois, Tennessee, Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Arizona, Indiana, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Michigan, Alabama, Texas, Wisconsin and Arkansas; have all said “no.”
They are joined by New Hampshire’s Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan in moving to prevent refugees from crossing state lines.
