Speech #1140063789

Mr. Speaker. I want to shift my focus now to the refugee crisis. While I have tried to focus my comments on actions that we should take to eliminate ISIS. one action we should not take is to become like them. America is a lamp that lights the horizon of civilized and free mankind. The Statue of Liberty cannot have a stiff arm. Her arm must continue to keep the torch burning brightly. If we use our passions. anger. and fear to snuff out her flame by xenophobic and kneejerk policy. the enemy wins. We have played into their hands. period. Here are some Syrian refugee facts you may not know. Despite a longestablished. multilayered system to vet and bring refugees into the United StatesI have worked with the International Organization for Migration on deployed battlefields. and I have worked with the UNHCR in their efforts to help place refugeesdespite a longestablished system. despite biometric and biographic screening. despite intelligence vetting with the National Counterterrorism Center. the FBIs Terrorist Screening Center. and the Departments of State. Defense. and Homeland Security. added to the fact that Syrian refugees receive additional screening to national security concernsand most of them are women and childrencoupled with the fact that only a total of 1.900 Syrians have entered this country in the last 4 years. most of them women and children. Americans across the country now are calling on Lady Liberty to drop her torch and give the stiff arm. with perhaps even another gesture. I want you to listen carefully to these statements by Members of Congress in response to a refugee billnot an illegal immigration bill or permanent residents. but refugees. a refugee bill. Listen to these comments by Members of Congress about people fleeing for their lives. Fighting immigration is "the best votegetting argument . . . The politician can beat his breast and proclaim his loyalty to America." "He can tell the unemployed man that he is out of work because some alien has a job." Here is another one: Congress must "protect the youth of America from this foreign invasion." And how about this one? "American children have first claim to Americas charity." There are many more. but these quotes were from 1939. The refugee bill was not for Muslim and Christian Syrians or Iraqi Muslims. Christians and Yazidis. it was for German Jews. While it was true that Germany was. indeed. a threat. the refugees were not. They were 20.000 children. Not only did that bill of 1939 not pass. but that Congress. with the same speech and rhetoric that I have been hearing in recent days in this august Chamber. Mr. Speaker. passed hurdle after hurdle in 1939 to make it more difficult for refugees to enter. They were. unfortunately. successful. Mr.