After the terror attacks in Paris last Friday, plenty of world leaders offered support to the city and public solidarity has been strong.
But in the wake of the attacks, some politicians had unfortunate words about Syrian refugees and U.S. border policy, including Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.
In a Fox News interview this past weekend, Huckabee spoke out against taking in Syrian refugees. "It's time to wake up and smell the falafel," he said.
"Something isn't going right in this open-immigration policy. We are importing terrorism," he continued, while commenting on Saturday's Democratic debate.
Huckabee, along with other Republican candidates and commentators, has been arguing that the U.S. should close its borders to Syrian refugees — even though there are more than 4 million of them, and half of all refugees in the world are children. The New York Times reported in September that during the four-and-a-half-year Syrian civil war, more than 200,000 people have been killed, among them a staggering number of civilians.
Since the attack on Paris Friday, at least 24 U.S. states (as of today) have announced that they don't want to accept refugees, saying they can't trust the screening process.
President Obama, however, maintains that the U.S. will remain open. "The people who are fleeing Syria are the most harmed by terrorism; they are the most vulnerable," Obama said Monday. "It is very important that we do not close our hearts to the victims of such violence and somehow start equating the issue of refugees with the issue of terrorism."
A note to Huckabee: Falafel smells amazing.