The Obama administration wrote to Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin late last week to describe, in detail, the "extraordinarily thorough and comprehensive" security vetting program that Syrian refugees must go through before they can enter the United States.
The five-page letter, signed by Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, outlines a multi-step, multi-agency set of interviews, background checks and biometric screenings that the two cabinet members describe as "the most robust screening process for any category of individuals seeking admission into the United States."
The ongoing civil war in Syria has caused an outpouring of more than 4 million refugees fleeing the violence.
The United States has accepted a tiny portion of those people - 1,682 last fiscal year, according to the administration - but has pledged to moderately increase the number it accepts to at least 10,000 this year.
That's still many fewer than many other countries. Germany, for instance, has already accepted hundreds of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers, Canada has pledged to accept 25,000 refugees this year and France, in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks, pledged to accept 30,000 refugees.
After the Paris attacks, at least 26 governors across the United States announced that they would not accept Syrian refugees, although what legal avenue they would have to decline refugees is unclear. None of the six Paris attackers identified so far was either Syrian or a refugee.
Last week, the U.S. House overwhelmingly approved a bill that would make it exceedingly difficult for any refugees to come to the U.S. The legislation, supported by all three of West Virginia's congressmen, would require the Homeland Security secretary, the FBI director and the director of National Intelligence to personally sign off on each refugee before they could be admitted.
Tomblin has not declared that he would bar refugees, but he said he does not anticipate any large-scale settlement of refugees in West Virginia.
"West Virginia still has not been notified about any potential Syrian refugee placements in the state, but the governor appreciates being updated on the existing security and screening plans," Tomblin spokesman Chris Stadelman said Monday.
The administration's letter, dated Friday but sent Saturday to every governor in the country, is in response to the recent refugee backlash.
The overwhelming majority of refugees that will be accepted in the United States are families, children and victims of torture, Kerry and Johnson wrote.
"Bottom line - under the current system, if there is doubt about whether an applicant would pose a security risk, that individual will not be admitted to the United States as a refugee," the secretaries wrote.
The first step in the refugee vetting process, as outlined in the letter, is an interview with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. That interview determines if applicants are, in fact, refugees - people who have been forced to flee due to war or persecution. The UN also looks for any "red flags" that would make someone ineligible for resettlement.
Potential U.S. refugees are then referred, with a packet of information, to the State Department.
At resettlement centers located abroad, State Department contractors interview applicants and collect identification and alias information from applicants.
The information is sent to the State Department, which conducts security checks on every applicant. The State Department checks each applicant's name and aliases against its Consular Lookout Support System database, which includes information from the Terrorist Screening Database, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the FBI and Interpol.
Some applicants are then checked again, against further intelligence databases including the National Counterterrorism Center.
Refugee applicants are then screened by the Department of Homeland Security's Citizen and Immigration Services.
There are more interviews and Homeland Security collects fingerprints for every refugee between the ages of 14 and 79.
Fingerprints are checked against Homeland Security, Defense Department and FBI databases as well as for previous immigration attempts.
Homeland Security officers then make a decision regarding potential refugees. Each decision is reviewed by a supervisor.
Eight days before a potential refugee is scheduled to travel to the U.S., Customs and Border Protection receives a list of everyone expected to arrive. The agency does initial vetting of the list before refugees arrive and additional background checks once they arrive.
Lastly, the State Department works with the Department of Health and Human Services to find resettlement sites within the country, to get refugees to the sites and to provide housing and help them transition to the community.
"Applicants for refugee admission are screened more carefully than any other type of traveler to the United States," the secretaries wrote. "With every refugee application, the burden of proof is on the applicant - the refugee must show that he or she qualifies for refugee status."
Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutmanon Twitter.