Governor Kate Brown says the state will accept refugees; local residents weigh in

Medford, Ore. — Oregon Governor Kate Brown says the state will continue to accept refugees, after one refugee has been identified as being involved in the Paris attacks. Now at least 30 governors raise concerns over the resettlement of Syrian refugees in their states.

NBC5 spoke with local residents about their thoughts on Syrian refugees entering the state in the wake of the Paris terror attacks, and many of them say they are torn between doing the right thing, and the responsible one.

“It’s not American,” one woman says, “we’re supposed to be a melting pot”.

“I think we should put a halt to it,” another man tells NBC5.

“It’s too dangerous, it’s too dangerous at this point.”

“It’s a hard decision to make because I feel bad for the refugees too.”

After 129 people were killed in terror attacks in Paris, the debate is heating up about the resettling of Syrian refugees on US soil.

“This is a situation where it is better to be safe than sorry,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday.

More than 2 dozen governors have either expressed concern or said they’ll put the breaks on allowing refugees within their state borders. House Speaker Paul Ryan says it’s the smart thing to do.

“The prudent, the responsible thing to do it to take a pause,” Ryan says, “in this particular aspect of this refugee program in order to verify that terrorists are not trying to infiltrate the refugee population.”

Governor Kate Brown however, says Oregon will not close it’s borders. On Tuesday she tweeted, “they seek safe haven and we will continue to open the doors of opportunity to them. The words on the Statue of Liberty apply in Oregon just as they do in every other state.” Oregonians we spoke with are divided.

“We need to regroup and find out what’s going on before we accept more refugees”.

“There are many places in the Middle East where they could go, not America.”

“We just need to have a real serious way of going and identifying them before they come in”.

“It’s a scary thought, and a hard decision. A hard decision our president has to make.”

It’s unclear whether states have the authority to make this decision as immigration is a federal matter. The Obama administration held a 90 minute conference call with governors across the country Tuesday to continue this discussion.