Even without an official welcome mat, the first batch of Syrian refugees has arrived in South Carolina as part of President Barack Obama's plan to resettle 10,000 Muslim migrants to the United States this year.
The U.S. had committed to accept up to 85,000 foreign refugees annually and resettle them in more than 180 U.S. cities and towns.
The Syrians were secretly resettled in Midlands, near the state capital of Columbia, without even the governor's office being notified, WND reported.
Many more Syrians are on their way to the state, South Carolina's Department of Social Services said.
The Syrians were resettled by the Lutheran Migration and Refugee Service, one of nine contractors who receive hundreds of millions of federal taxpayer dollars to resettle foreign refugees in the U.S.
South Carolina's Republican Gov. Nikki Haley was one of more than two dozen state governors who told the Obama administration they didn't want any Syrian refugees.
But the governors' objection appeared to have been dismissed by the White House as more Syrian refugees are coming not only in South Carolina but in other states as well.
The governors objected to the Obama resettlement plan because of their apprehension that Islamic terrorists could be among the refugees who would be coming to their states to create trouble. Their fears mounted when the terrorists struck Paris on Nov. 13, killing 130 people. At least one of the terrorists turned out to be a Syrian "refugee" who entered Europe.
More than 97 percent of the nearly 2,300 Syrian refugees resettled in the U.S. since the start of the Syrian civil war have been Muslim, with the vast majority of them belonging to the Sunni sect, the same branch of Islam adhered to by followers of al-Qaeda, ISIS, al-Nusra Front and other terrorist organisations, according to WND.
Moreover, Governor Haley recently told WIS-TV in Columbia that FBI Director James Comey told her he had no background information on the Syrian refugees who would be resettled in the U.S.
Likewise, Michael Steinback, FBI deputy director for counter-terrorism, testified before Congress, saying it was virtually impossible to vet the Syrian refugees because they are coming from a "failed state" without any reliable law-enforcement records.
"I personally called the FBI director when we were deciding on the Syrian refugees and whether they should come over," Haley said. "He specifically said, 'We have no background on these refugees.' And that's when I said, if we have no background, we can't take the chance of whether it is OK to have them come into the country."
Like all refugees, the Syrians are given social welfare benefits that include cash stipends for up to eight months, Medicaid, subsidised housing, job preparation training, citizenship preparation, vocational and English language training, for up to five years.
