After rumors over the weekend flew that thousands of Syrian refugees landed in New Orleans, State Rep. Gene Reynolds, is setting the record straight.
A flood of refugees migrating from the terror in Syria and Afghanistan has had a small trickle effect in the New Orleans area, despite reports of 10,000 arriving in the Crescent City.
Reynolds says only 14 refugees have been accepted into Louisiana so far this year and wants to remind everyone to not believe everything they read online.
“There are considerably fewer refugees in our state than was stated by some of the blogs on Facebook,” Reynolds said. “Remember these websites make a lot of money when you share or click on them for the advertisements they have, so they take a little truth and a whole lot of fiction because it is how they make a good living.”
He went on to say that the Federal Bureau of Investigations as well as other federal departments is vetting the refugees.
In the wake of terror attacks that killed 129 people in Paris, France on Friday night, Gov. Bobby Jindal, sent a letter to the White House demanding to know how many Syrian refugees would be allowed into the state.
The White House has announced plans to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees in 2016, but they would not all be in Louisiana.
On Monday, Jindal issued an executive order to halt the influx of Syrian refugees into the state.
The order instructs the Louisiana State Police and all executive branch agencies to “monitor and avert threats within the State of Louisiana” possibly posed by refugees already in the state.
Reynolds says he is staying on top of the situation and will update the public has the information comes to him.