Standing for Refugees, Sanders Urges Against Post-Paris ‘Demagoguery’
(COMMON DREAMS) Nadia Prupis, November 17, 2015 — As media pundits, Republican leaders, and more than half of U.S. states moved to slam the door on war refugees from Syria in the wake of attacks in Paris, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders delivered a speech in Cleveland, Ohio on Monday night saying the nation must “not succumb to Islamophobia” or give into such “demagoguery and fear-mongering.”
Speaking to a crowd of 7,000 at Cleveland State University, Sanders, who is running for president in 2016 as a Democrat, said that in “these difficult times…. We will not turn our backs on the refugees.”
On Monday, more than half of the nation’s governors announced their opposition to accepting refugees fleeing violence in the Middle East. The swell of opposition, now numbering 27 states—all but one of whom have a Republican governor—heralded the latest reflexive response from the country’s conservative leaders following news that one of the attackers had entered France’s borders with a wave of refugees moving through Europe.