“We’re very small,” Jurgens said, "less than 1 percent of what has been admitted nationally.”

Most of the state’s refugee population is settled in Sioux Falls and Huron, where Lutheran Social Services has its offices. In 2015, Sioux Falls accepted 357 refugees, while Huron took in 137. Jurgens said he expects similar numbers for 2016.

For comparison, between October and January alone, the state of California accepted 1,325 refugees, according to statistics from the Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration Office of Admissions.

Though Craig’s bill does not describe a threshold at which “absorptive capacity” is reached, it would give the governor the power to issue an “executive order declaring that the state, through any entity or designee, will not, until revocation of the executive order, participate in the resettlement of refugees.”

The bill names the South Dakota Department of Social Services as the agency that would place and monitor refugees within the state, a function now performed by Lutheran Social Services. The DSS would also process requests for moratoriums from both the state and local government levels.