ST. LOUIS — One Missouri Republican says Palestinian refugees fleeing the violence in Gaza should not be welcomed here. But Gov. Mike Parson said her calls are misguided.
Parson rebuked a Missouri House Republican who's running for the Senate. His remarks suggested that Missouri State Rep. Chris Dinkins' (R-Missouri) broad calls for a ban on all refugees from an entire war-torn region showed she was uninformed about the law, unserious about her proposal and inexperienced on the job.
“Well, you don't have the authority to do that to start off with, I mean, anybody's that's been around a little bit," Parson said.
Dinkins won a seat in the Missouri House in 2018 representing parts of Iron, Washington, Wayne and Reynolds counties. Parson said if she'd been on the job a bit longer, perhaps she'd have learned which levels of government control immigration and refugee policies.
“The federal government could place refugees anywhere they want to without asking your permission. We've been through this before,” Parson said.
In a letter to Parson, Dinkins said Missouri should "send a strong message about our values," expressing "great concern about welcoming individuals from regions whose belief systems are rooted in anti-American and anti-Israel sentiments."
Parson rejected her calls to paint civilians with such a broad brush.
“There's a big difference [between] the Palestinian people and the people of Hamas,” Parson said. “Hamas are terrorist groups that attack our country and hate who we are. We don't want them here under no circumstances whatsoever. But I don't think you want to take everybody from Palestine to meet them as bad people. I don't know that.“
Dinkins published her open letter as more than two million people who call Gaza home hope a temporary truce stretches into a permanent one.
Among the casualties is a young wounded boy named Ayoub. His grandmother said he lost 18 family members in an Israeli airstrike.
Many are mourning families gone, houses destroyed and entire neighborhoods erased after the Israeli military launched a counter-offensive in response to the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.
In Gaza City, as hungry refugee children waited for food to warm on makeshift stoves, Dinkins, who lives 6,500 miles away, wrote, "It is imperative that we ... take a clear stand in opposition to refugee resettlement in Missouri."
She warned that "many individuals from the Gaza strip” would bring "divisive and dangerous ideologies."
"You’ve got to be careful who we're targeting for to say who we don't want here and who we do," Parson said. "Because, again, I think there's a huge deal between Palestinian people and Hamas. You know, I think that's pretty clear."
Term limits mean Dinkins' days are numbered in the state House. She's running for a seat in the state Senate.
We offered a chance to explain her proposal, for example, how could anyone practically or constitutionally vet a refugee for their ideas and which ideas exactly would she allow.
She hasn't responded.