Virginia mayor under fire for comments using Japanese interment camps to justify refusing Syrian refugees

Mayor David Bowers (Photo: YouTube/U.S. Conference of Mayors)

A Virginia mayor joined a majority of U.S. governors refusing to accept any refugees from Syria in the wake of last week’s deadly terror attacks in Paris. But that mayor, David Bowers of Roanoke, Va., quickly came under fire for comments he made in a statement explaining his decision.

“Roanoke is a welcoming city, and America is a melting pot of the world,“ Bowers, a 63-year-old Democrat, wrote in a letter to his constituents Wednesday. "However, since the recent terrorist bombing of the Russian airliner, the attacks in Paris and now with the murderous threats to our nation’s capital, I am convinced that it is presently imprudent to assist in the relocation of Syrian refugees to our part of Virginia.”

Bowers continued: “I’m reminded that President Franklin D. Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it appears that the threat of harm to America from ISIS now is just as real and serious as that from our enemies then.”

 

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