Speech #1140064076

I traveled to Gaziantep. Turkey. near the Syrian border. with a congressional delegation led by Senator TIM KAINE of Virginia. While there. we heard directly from government leaders. local NGOs. and charities on the front lines helping the countless Syrian refugees who have lost their homes and many of their friends and family. They are desperate to escape the violence and are part of the worlds worst refugee crisis since World War II. We cannot shrink from this moment when strong American leadership is needed. One of the most important reminders of the legacy we must live up to is the Statue of Liberty. For more than 100 years. it has stood as a promise for better life for the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free." We cannot turn our backs on the values at the heart of our identity as Americans. To do this would cede a victory to the terrorists. Yet the fear. anger. prejudice. and isolationism that are driving the current debate on Syrian refugees remind me of some of the darkest and ugliest chapters of modern American history. Many Americanssome in this Chamberstill remember the moment in our Nations history when we turned away ships filled with Jewish refugees desperate to escape Nazi Germany and imprisoned our fellow citizens of Japanese heritage in internment camps. Do we really want to return to these kinds of destructive and hateful policies? Is that really who we are today? I am so proud of Americas leadership in providing $4.5 billion in aid to Syrian refugees in the regionmore than any other country. I am also proud that the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement places a priority on accepting widows with children and highly vulnerable individuals. especially the elderly and the infirm. Mr. Speaker. H.R. 4038 would shut down our resettlement program altogether. That is what it wants to do. and that is what it intends to do. The refugees eligible for resettlement in the United States are not the refugees in Europe. The refugees coming into the United States through our resettlement program have been living in refugee camps for monthsoften yearsunder unimaginably harsh conditions. A woman and her 3yearold little girl whose home in Syria was reduced to rubble by barrel bombs and whose husband has been killed will be denied the opportunity to go through the rigorous screening process to find a new home in America. An elderly woman who has lost everything and is barely alive now in a refugee camp will be denied a home in America. even if she has some distant relatives already in the United States. Mr. Speaker. where is our humanity? None of the Syrian refugees who have already made it through our screening process and have been resettled in the United States fit the description of the terrorists I have heard described over and over again last night in the Rules Committee. Those ugly distortions of the people we are resettling only emphasize how out of touch with reality this debate has gotten. Mr.