Trump off on number of Syrian refugees

President-elect Donald Trump caused a stir last May with an off-the-mark remark during a campaign rally in Albuquerque about a supposed influx of Syrian refugees coming into the state.

“Syrian refugees are being located in large numbers to New Mexico,” he said, prompting boos from the crowd of about 8,000 people. “If I was governor, that wouldn’t be happening. I couldn’t care less. They say the governors have no choice. If I’m governor, I have a choice, OK? Believe me.”

Gov. Susana Martinez, a fellow Republican, had snubbed thenpresidential candidate Trump by not showing up at the rally. But a fact check showed he was well off base with his comments about refugees in New Mexico.

According to FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan online news site, a grand total of 10 Syrian refugees had relocated in New Mexico since Martinez took office in 2011. That’s out of 4,421 total Syrian refugees who arrived in the U.S. during that period.

Months earlier, following the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, Martinez issued a statement saying she “strongly” opposed an Obama administration’s plan to accept more Syrian refugees from the war-torn country “until there is a very clear plan in place to properly vet and place the refugees, and the voices of governors and the public can be heard.”

And though Trump said that if he were governor he would decide how many Syrian refugees came into the state, a federal judge in Texas disagreed. U.S. District Court Judge David C. Godbey ruled in February that it’s not up to the states or the courts to decide.

The Texas attorney general had asked for a temporary injunction to stop the resettlement of Syrians in that state because they may pose a terrorist threat, but it’s the “federal executive that is charged with assessing and mitigating that risk,” the judge ruled — an opinion that come Trump’s inauguration next month, would put the refugee resettlement issue in his hands.