On Nov. 15, Gov. Robert Bentley announced he would refuse any Syrian refugees who wished to locate in Alabama, citing terrorist attacks in Paris on Nov. 13 as motivation for the decision. The next day, Bentley ordered all state agencies to prevent resettlement efforts where able.

“After full consideration of this weekend’s attacks of terror on innocent citizens in Paris, I will oppose any attempt to relocate Syrian refugees to Alabama through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program,” Bentley said in his release on Sunday. “As your Governor, I will not stand complicit to a policy that places the citizens of Alabama in harm’s way.”

Bentley’s executive order, signed Nov. 16, directs State executive agencies to prevent and tells the Department of Health and the Department of Human Resources not to participate in resettlement efforts. In addition, Bentley orders the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency to “utilize all lawful means to monitor and avert threats” if a refugee from Syria is found to have settled in the state.

As of Tuesday, Nov. 17, CNN reported that 26 republican governors and one democratic governor had declared opposition to admitting refugees to their states. The Obama administration previously announced it wants to host an additional an additional 10,000 Syrian refugees in the coming year, but concern about refugees entering the country has been growing among conservatives for months, reports Jenna Johnson in The Washington Post.

“They have seen the video footage of ruthless Islamic State fighters and read reports of these terrorists beheading Christians, torturing hostages and killing in the name of their faith. They assume that terrorists capable of such acts would pose as refugees. And they are uncomfortable that most Syrians are Muslims – making it all the more difficult to distinguish terrorists from innocent refugees,” Johnson wrote in a story published following the Paris attacks.

Bentley’s release reported that to date there has been no credible intelligence of any terrorist threats in Alabama, and no Syrian refugees have relocated to the state.

“We see ourselves engaged in a delicate situation that we shouldn’t be confused by. But one thing is clear, the most recent and horrifying attacks shouldn’t be blame on the Syrian refugees,” said Saraí Portillo, executive director of the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice in a statement Monday. “It is horrific violence that has forced Syrian families to leave there homes in search of safety.”

The civil war in Syria has endured since 2011 and has been called the “greatest humanitarian crisis since World War II” as more than 250,000 have died and approximately 4.29 million have registered as refugees, according to the UN, which also estimated that the conflict has forced more than 11 million people from their homes.