One of three remaining Democrats in the Presidential race stopped in Dearborn Friday.
Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley met with Syrian and Iraqi refugees now living in Metro Detroit, before addressing the Arab American Institute’s National Leadership Conference.
O’Malley condemned what he calls “xenophobic immigrant hate” coming from Republican candidates.
And he says Democrats should be talking more about Syrian refugees.
“More of us need to speak out,” O’Malley said. “This is a humanitarian crisis. The United States must lead. There are other ways to lead than at the opposite end of a drone strike.”
O’Malley has been by far the most vocal Presidential candidate about the refugee crisis. He says the US should accept at least 65,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2016, far more than what the Obama administration has proposed.
“We cannot be effective in the world, and we cannot be a moral leader in this world, if we slam the door in the face of this humanitarian crisis,” O’Malley said.
After this week, O’Malley is now one of just three Democrats running for President, but his campaign has struggled to gain traction with voters.
