Advocates urge calm, understanding in regard to Syrian immigrants

Groups working to resettle Syrians fleeing the civil war there pleaded for calm and understanding Tuesday after the governors of more than two dozen states, including Iowa and Illinois, took steps to try to stop the refugees from coming to their states in the wake of the Paris terrorist attack that killed 129 people.

'To close the door on Syrian refugees would be nothing less than signing a death warrant for tens of thousands of families who are fleeing for their lives,” Linda Hartke, president of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, said Tuesday during a conference call. 'If ISIS had hoped the result of the Paris attacks would be small-minded panic, some governors are giving them their wish.”

Fewer than 2,000 Syrian refugees have resettled in the United States since 2012. Iowa officials say they don't know of any coming to the state.

Amy Rowell, director of World Relief, which works to assist refugees, said her group had agreed to help 20 Syrian refugees before those plans are on hold because of Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner's announcement Monday that the state would suspend accepting new refugees temporarily.

'We're prayerful that people can understand that loving our neighbors is what we're called to do,” Rowell said.

In a statement Tuesday, the Iowa Catholic Conference said the actions of the governors to limit resettlement of Syrian refugees recalled the 'embarrassing experience” of the World War II imprisonment of people of Japanese ancestry.

Advocates for the refugee population say that in the 40-plus years the United States has brought people here, none has been implicated in a terrorist attack, and the average screening time for Syrian refugees is 18 months to two years.

Still, worries about the possibility that a member of the Islamic State might infiltrate the United States gained resonance in Congress. Republicans were calling on the Obama administration to step up security.

Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, both Iowa Republicans, said Tuesday they had joined a letter to President Barack Obama saying no Syrian refugees should be admitted to the United States 'unless the U.S. government can guarantee, with 100 percent assurance, that they are not members, supporters, or sympathizers” of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

In a statement, Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, said the United States should be vigilant in screening potential entrants, 'while also being mindful of our responsibility as leader of the free world when it comes to innocent victims of violence who are themselves escaping terrorism.”