Mr. Speaker. the United States has always been and should always be a place of refuge. Remember. the Syrian refugees are running away from ISIS. They are running away from war. from terror. The are its victims. To stop thousands of desperate people who are fleeing unspeakable violence is unconscionable. We might as well take down the Statute of Liberty. Countries with much smaller populations like Lebanon and Turkey have agreed to take 1 million refugees or more. Even France just announced they are increasing the number of Syrian refugees they are accepting. We in the United States are talking about a mere 10.000. These refugees are subject to an extensive vetting process which can take up to 24 months. But the real danger America faces is that ISIS. through its propaganda. can radicalize people already here and inspire them to attack the United States from within. In Paris we saw that several of the attackers were European nationals who could enter the United States without being vetted. so it is ridiculous to assert that by denying access to refugees. we would be making America safer. We face a choice that will echo through history. In 1924. a racist. xenophobic. and antiSemitic Congress passed legislation slamming the door shut on Jewish. Italian. Greek. and Eastern European immigrants. The Almanac of American Politics said that. if it werent for the 1924 Immigration Act. perhaps 2 million of the 6 million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust would have been living safely in the United States instead. Back then we shut our doors to people in desperate need. We must not do so again.
Keywords matched
Immigration refugees immigrants xenophobic