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November 16, 2015 03:01 PM UTC

Profiles In Courage: Hickenlooper Welcomes Syrian Refugees

  • 61 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
Gov. John Hickenlooper.
Gov. John Hickenlooper.

As the Colorado Independent’s Corey Hutchins reports:

So far more than a dozen governors, most of them Republicans, have said they want to close their state borders to refugees from Syria. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe both, Democrats, however, have said their states will continue accepting refugees.

Colorado Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton said in a statement today he wants to stop refugees from Syria from entering the United States.

President Barack Obama said the United States would continue to accept refugees and called efforts to screen those fleeing Syria based on their religion “shameful.”

In September, Colorado “was preparing to help” as refugees left Syria and other countries in the Middle East, according to CBS Denver.

In a statement today, Gov. John Hickenlooper makes it clear that nothing has changed:

“A few short days ago we witnessed another senseless act of terrorism. Our hearts go out to the families, friends and loved ones of those lost and injured in Paris, and in other acts of terror around the world. Our first priority remains the safety of our residents. We will work with the federal government and Homeland Security to ensure the national verification processes for refugees are as stringent as possible. We can protect our security and provide a place where the world’s most vulnerable can rebuild their lives.” [Pols emphasis]

As the American Civil Liberties Union notes, the knee-jerk response from some Republican governors against taking in refugees from the war in Syria is, in addition to optically quite troubling, most likely not legal:

For our part, we’re reminded of the example of another governor of Colorado, Gov. Ralph Carr, who in the early days of World War II urged the people of Colorado to welcome and respect Japanese-Americans being transported here by the federal government away from the West Coast. Carr paid for his foresight and equanimity with his political career, but is today remembered as one of our state’s best governors.

Today, Gov. Hickenlooper has spoken out in the finest traditions of a state that has witnessed both great compassion and great intolerance in our history. He deserves not just the gratitude of future Colorado citizens with the benefit of hindsight, but to be heeded now as a voice of reason in difficult times.

Good on you, Governor.

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61 thoughts on “Profiles In Courage: Hickenlooper Welcomes Syrian Refugees”

      1. Not only are refugees a relatively safe addition to the population, they are a huge boon to businesses in need of cheap labor. Ask Swifts meatpackers,  or Great Western Sugar or other big-plant employers in NE Colorado. Without refugees, they'd have a hard time filling shifts.

        And refugees buy stuff, pay rent and payroll and social security taxes (they are legal immigrants), and generally contribute to their community economies.

        Then there are the intangible benefits of increasing compassion, cultural awareness, and expanding what humans know about being human. Example: I  was riding the bus in Greeley. Walking up to the bus stop, I saw a youngish woman, dressed in long flowered skirt and hijab, obviously a traditional Somali woman, probably a refugee. She was moving around, almost dancing, and talking, singing softly, apparently to herself. So that was a little scary – a possibly crazy person at my bus stop. Until I walked up to the bus stop, and figured out that she was praying. Devout Muslims pray five times a day.

        She stopped when I walked up, and then resumed when I smiled at her, and moved a little ways off to give her privacy. 

        I wish I had that kind of spiritual gumption.

  4. How can you possibly be in favor of this madness?? THEY FOUND A SYRIAN PASSPORT ON ONE OF THE TERRORISTS IN PARIS!

    I am speechless that Hickenlooper would be so flip about the safety of our citizens, and that you would praise him for it. I can't hardly believe it.

    2. I think you're clutching your pearls a little too tight there, Moddy. Do we need to fetch you your fainting couch?

      It's the right thing to do, props to Hick. 

      1. I think this diary caught Moddy in the middle of an auto-asphyxiation episode. Take yourself and your sack-of-shit ideology back to grandma's basement and let the grownups tackle the humanitarian crisis facing our fellow Syrians. 

    3. The 9/11 attackers were from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Lebanon. Should we ban all travel from those countries, too? 

      What about the "shoe bomber?" He was from Britain. No more immigrants from England!

    4. OMG, ISIS MIGHT (not confirmed) have used the flood of migrants risking their lives to escape ISIS to get one guy into France. [ More recent reporting says all the attackers were native to France and Belgium but, whatever.]  So, predictably we react to ISIS by doing exactly what they want – by FREAKING OUT ABOUT ONE POSSIBLE GUY and not helping MILLIONS trying to escape ISIS.

      Don't be cowed by cowards. Reject fear and bigotry.

      1. Exactly.  I was very glad to see the Governor take this position.  I find it telling that those who love the muscular rhetoric are the most frightened fear-mongering folk around. 

    5. Hey Moderatus … French intelligence think that the passport was probably planted by ISIS to spur the kind of reactionary knee-jerk reaction that you are having right here.

      It wouldn't be the first time ISIS has yanked the media's chain (and gotten exactly the kind of propaganda benefit that they wanted).

      Try not to be such a tool.  Although you seem to be in good company with lots of the GOP.

      1. Interesting. That thought crossed my mind.  When things like this happen the first narrative is almost always wrong or incomplete. But asking righties to hold the hysteria for 5 minutes pending further investigation is a fool's errand.

    6. And some were Belgians, too.  Bloody Belgian Bastards!

      To address your point, though, refugees don't just waltz into the United States.

      Fucking idiot.

    7. Mod:

      Isis wants to bring terrorists into the US and Hick wants to bring folks in from Syria and Iraq who are displaced and want to come to the US.  

      Are you telling me you don't feel 100% comfortable that the JV can't get a few folks by our team trying to keep them out?

      Why would you feel that way?

      Did the EPA lend a few of their all-star performers to Homeland Security after they helped keep Colorado's waters clean?

    9. If Timmy McVeigh had a passport, it would have been USA.
      If James Holmes had a passport, it would have been USA.
      If Adam Lanza had a passport, it would have been USA.
      If Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had passports, they would have been USA.
      etc.

      P.S.
      ISIS is not a strategic threat to the USA. China is. Focus your energy there.

    11. Hey, lay off, Moderatus, he is just quoting directly from the Bible according to Supply-Side Jesus:

      "Mercilessly bomb your neighbors and destabilize their lands, and when they come to you for help, smite them, turn them away, for if not, there is less for you and much to fear from them. For this, more than a generous heart, will show the world your true intent."

      2. Meanwhile ravage their destabilized lands of all the precious minerals underneath the soil….or sand……In the Name of Supply-Side Jesus We Prey.

        1. Blessed are the fearful, for they shall be called the Children of Fox.

          Blessed are the bundlers, for theirs is the kingdom of Congress.

          Blame it on the meek, for they shall inherit diddly. 

    13. And you consider yourself "Pro-Life"?  What a blasphemy in face of a compassionate God whose holy presence came into the heart of mankind in a manager born to a couple seeking shelter and acceptance.  The Pharisees with their egotistical self-righteousness were more compassionate than you are you worthless speck of dust and fluids.

      1. The same 'pro-lifer' that celebrates the nativity scene each Christmas: the depiction of a middle-eastern couple seeking refuge.

        You just couldn't make this stuff up. 

    1. Nothing hard about this. Governors around the country – the ones who want to fit nicely into the Islamic State's grand plan – would have to do a hell of a lot to deny resources to the Federal government as it tries to resettle these refugees. Easiest thing to do is stay out of the Fed’s way and help show these folks the freedom, prosperity and community our country has to offer. Worst thing we could do is give ISIS yet more tools to use in their recruiting platform by spreading more hate and divisiveness.

    1. In the footsteps of Governor Carr, the only governor who stood up for Japanese Americans and against internment. Now that really took courage and cost him his career. Colorado should be proud.

  8. Suppose the US had turned away Marco Rubio's parents in the 60's because they were coming from Cuba and who knows whether Fidel Castro had planted some of his communist subversives masquerading as refugees. Or supposed Canada had slammed the door on Rafael Cruz' dad who also was fleeing Castro's Cuba. Where would we be today without these pillars of the GOP leadership today?

    1. Hmmmmm. . . . . . . you do make a very compelling argument, Frank.  There are obviously all sorts of possible unintended consequences attached to every action (. . . those damn "unknown unknowns")  . . .  

      . . .  Still think that Hick' is doing the right thing here, however!

      wink

        1. Or raise a home grown and pampered politician in the US who will be a Manchurian Candidate for the rich and destroy our Democracy from within. Those clever Batista’s. Always thinking about the long game.

  10. Imagine that these R candidates and their minions resided in Bethlehem. "Dude,  can we sleep in the barn? My woman is, like, going to give birth to the son of God"

     

  12. Thanks Governor, for standing up for whats right & not pandering to the lowest common denominator. As for the craven governors who put political expediency over the lives of refugees… SHAME!!!

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