Tennessee State GOP Leader Calls For National Guard To Round Up Syrian Refugees: Report

A prominent state lawmaker in Tennessee has called for the National Guard to round up any Syrian refugees who had recently settled in the state and to block any additional Syrian refugees from entering, the Tennessean reported Wednesday. The comments by state Rep. Glen Casada, the GOP caucus chairman, came amid a slew of recent announcements from politicians opposing the resettlement of Syrian refugees in their states after terrorist attacks killed at least 129 people in Paris last week.

“We need to activate the Tennessee National Guard and stop them from coming in to the state by whatever means we can," said Casada, the Tennessean reported. “I’m not worried about what a bureaucrat in D.C. or an unelected judge thinks. ... We need to gather (Syrian refugees) up and politely take them back to the ICE center and say, 'They’re not coming to Tennessee, they’re yours.' "

Casada’s statements provoked a quick response from U.S. Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif. Takano tweeted, “Can’t believe this needs clarifying, but the internment of Japanese-Americans (including my parents) was not a model policy.”

The internment of Japanese-Americans in the U.S. was the forced relocation and incarceration of roughly 110,000 to 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry during World War II. The United States has recently been engulfed in controversy after it was announced that authorities believed one of the suspects in the Paris attacks was a member of the Islamic State group -- also known as ISIS or ISIL -- who entered France amid the current wave of Syrian refugees. In response, a large number of GOP governors have demanded that the Obama administration suspend plans to resettle 10,000 more Syrian refugees in the U.S. in 2016.

“Apparently, they’re scared of widows and orphans coming into the United States of America as part of our tradition of compassion. First, they were worried about the press being too tough on them during debates. Now they’re worried about 3-year-old orphans. That doesn’t sound very tough to me," Obama said, USA Today reported. "They’ve been playing on fear in order to try to score political points or to advance their campaigns. And it’s irresponsible. And it’s contrary to who we are. And it needs to stop, because the world is watching.”