One of Phil Bryant’s top priorities is keeping Mississippians safe.
That’s what the Mississippi governor told the Columbus Rotary Club and Lowndes County Republican Women on Tuesday during a meeting at Lion Hills Center and Golf Course after an attendee asked about Syrian refugees being allowed into the state.
Bryant is one of more than 30 governors who have said they do not want to accept refugees of the Syrian Civil War in their state in the aftermath of the deadly Nov. 13 Paris terror attacks.
Bryant said Tuesday he’d received generally positive feedback on his stance from “average Mississippians.”
The governor elaborated on his stance, saying he believed the extensive destruction throughout Syria would make it very difficult to properly and thoroughly vet Syrian refugees before allowing them into the country.
“We’re all sympathetic Christian people,” Bryant said. “But why not create a safe zone in Syria and put these refugees in it? Give them housing and food, put the United States military to guard it and leave them at home.”
Bryant pointed to a November incident when eight Syrians were stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border as a evidence of the need to be wary of Syrian refugees.
“(Immigration and Customs Enforcement) stopped those, who we fully believe were going to perpetrate an attack similar to what we saw in San Bernardino,” Bryant said.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in a statement issued to Texas news station KTXS on Nov. 19, said the Syrians “presented” themselves to authorities at a port of entry into the country.
“DHS confirms that on Tuesday (Nov. 17), members of two Syrian families, two men, two women and four children, presented themselves at a port of entry in Laredo,” the statement says. “They were taken into custody by CBP and turned over to ICE for further processing. The two adult women and four children were transferred to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. The two men from these families are being held at the South Texas Detention Center in Pearsall Texas.”
Still, Bryant said he strongly opposes allowing 10,000 refugees into the country, as President Barack Obama has called for, without being able to definitively know who they are or track them.
Bryant said the state’s U.S. congressional delegation is working on a bill that will create opportunities for the state to identify refugees or people who are in the country on a visa when they attempt to use certain state services like getting a driver’s license, attending a college or university.
“If we have someone who shows up and says, ‘I’d like to get some benefits from the SNAP program,’ Where are you from,” Bryant said. “Syria? Yeah, I’d like to know that and see, one, if they’re qualified for benefits — they probably are not — and two, to see if they have a passport.
“We’re going to do everything we can within our power to identify them so we at least know who they are,” he added.
First term accomplishments
Bryant also touted his first term accomplishments Tuesday.
Most notably, he said the state’s unemployment rate has dropped from 9.5 percent when he took office in 2011 to 5.9 percent today — a level he called “pretty remarkable” for Mississippi.
“I said in my state of the state address my first responsibility and my first desire is to find a job for every Mississippian that wants one,” he said. “I’ve amended that. I want a job even if they don’t want one.”
Bryant said Mississippi is one of 20 states to receive a federal grant that it will use to help 3,400 people get off food stamps and into a workforce training program.
Bryant also pointed to the third grade reading gate, which he said is seeing early success.
The reading gate mandates that all third grade students pass a reading proficiency test in order to advance. Those who cannot read at third grade level are retained.
“We don’t think you ought to socially promote a child to the fourth grade unless he can read on a third grade level,” Bryant said. “…We’re not going to give them the false impression that they’re going to succeed by passing them when they’re not prepared to do so.
“(Three years ago) only 54 percent of the third grade was reading on a third-grade level,” he continued. “In August, they took the third grade reading test. Ninety-two percent of the children in Mississippi passed.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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