Speech #1100055970

I appreciate that. I am going to speak on amendment No. 1191. which is set down for a vote this evening. This is an amendment that would improve our Nations treatment of asylum seekers. that is. people who come to our shores seeking refuge from persecution they have suffered in their home countries based on race. religion. nationality or political conviction. As far as I know. this is the only amendment on the treatment of those seeking asylum that will be considered as part of this comprehensive immigration legislation. I offer this amendment because the Congressionally chartered Commission on International Religious Freedom has told us that our country. our Government. is failing In its historic duty to those "longing to breathe free" from the Statue of Liberty. I believe. as the Commission outlined. we can address this serious challenge at very little expense. with no adverse affect on our Nations security. and without impairing immigration enforcement operations. It is the right thing to do. It is consistent with our best values in our history. In fact. as you know. our Founding Fathers understood the Nations role to be not just a haven for those seeking freedom but a haven for those seeking freedom from persecution. Thomas Jefferson once likened the United States to a "New Canaan." the Biblical Canaan in mind. where victims of persecution. and I am quoting here. "will be received as brothers and secured against like oppressions by a participation in the right of selfgovernment." That is exactly what America has become. To the great benefit of this country. some of the greatest Americans in our history came here as refugees seeking asylum from persecution. Nobel Laureates Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann became neighbors in Princeton. NJ. Henry Kissinger and Madeline Albright came with their families to the United States. fleeing from the Nazis and Communists. respectively. and went on. of course. to become Secretaries of State. If I might. on a point of personal privilege say. most special to me. on a day in 1949. then a child. my wife. Hadassah Freilich Lieberman. came here with her parents seeking asylum from Communist Czechoslovakia. This national duty to those fleeing persecution is emblazoned in a particular stanza on the Statue of Liberty that says: Here at our seawashed. sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch. whose flame is the imprisoned lightning. And her name. ... Mother of Exiles. Yet despite that lofty sentiment. too often today we are apparently turning asylum seekers away without the proper hearings guaranteed them by law. or confining them in prison conditions alongside convicted criminals while their cases are pending. That is what the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has reported to Congress.