Speech #1140065359

As we have seen in recent weeks. the reach of ISILwhether it is a passenger aircraft in Sinai. a neighborhood in southern Beirut. or multiple neighborhoods in Paris. ISILs strength is expanding and mutating. and we have to take those concerns seriously. I applaud the work that has already been done to try to make sure the vetting process for refugees who entered the United States is pretty intense. Four million refugees left Syria during the course of the Syrian civil war. Of those 4 million who have left and registered with the U.N.. after a fairly extensive review process. the U.N. has referred 20.000 to the United States for possible consideration to be refugees. Of those 20.000. after an 18month vetting process. we have allowed approximately 2.000 into the United States. So the vetting process for refugees is pretty intense. If we can make it better. we need to do that. but it is already fairly significant. I also applaud efforts the administration announced yesterday and that other colleagues. including the Presiding Officer. are working on to ensure that the visa waiver program we currently have. which allows citizens from 38 countries to come to the United States without visas. is tight. We have to do our best in a careful and deliberate way to make sure our security in the midst of this battle against ISIL is strong. I rise today to speak particularly about this act because I think it is problematic. and I think it is problematic from the very title of the act. I think it raises some questions we have to be very careful about. Syrian and Iraqi refugees are not foreign enemies. Refugees are not the enemies of the United States. We have an enemy. The enemy is ISIL. We are coming up on the start of a 17month war against ISIL that Congress has been unwilling to debate. vote on. and declare. ISIL is an enemy. and we would all acknowledge that. but the refugees who are leaving Syria and Iraq are not our enemies. They are victims. They are victims. I think before we go down the path of quicklyand this bill was passed in the House in just a couple of dayspainting with a broad brush as our enemies these poor people who have suffered so much. we really need to reflect on what they have been through. This refugee crisis in Syria has been called by most NGOs and other organizations like the U.N. the greatest humanitarian crisis since World War II. In a country of between 25 and 30 million people. 4 million have had to flee because of the atrocities of the Assad regime and the atrocities of the civil war carried out by ISIL and other terrorist organizations. Four million had to leave their homes and 8 million more had to leave their homes and move to other places in their country where they would prefer not to live because their homes are unsafe because of the civil war.