Speech #CREC-2017-01-30-pt1-PgS469-2_t16

It makes this Nation less safe and not more so. The ban was put forth in a climate of fear, intending to try to appeal to people's fears, trying to tell people that doing this Executive order was going to make us safer, but in its essence it is illogical when you look at the facts. Not only should it be known that it blocks immigration from seven majority Muslim countries--seven countries. Not a single perpetrator of terrorist attacks on American soil has come from these countries, dating back to well before 9/11. In fact, well before 2000, well before the nineties, well before the eighties and, in fact, not since the seventies, in over 40 years, no American has been killed on American soil by any of these countries in terrorist attacks. In addition to that, what this ban is doing is it is shutting down the Refugee Resettlement Program for about 4 months and suspends the Syrian refugee program indefinitely, despite the fact that individuals entering the United States as refugees undergo the most heavily vetted resettlement process of anybody traveling into the United States. So understand this. If you are trying to come into this country through student visas, Visa Waiver Programs, there are so many ways to come into this country without going through the refugee process, which takes between 1 year and 3 years, and you are not just going through the vetting of the Department of State but also the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the National Counterterrorism Center, numerous agencies for over up to 3 years are vetting you. Let me tell you right now, again, people who go through this program, history is showing, you have not seen in any recent years that folks going through these programs pose a terrorist threat or are taking American lives. So the very argument being used to push this ban is illogical and has no basis for any of the experiences we have had in this country. A former chief counsel for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration services remarked that no competent terrorist would choose the U.S. refugee process as a preferred strategy for gaining entry into this country. Subjecting yourself to the 1 to 3 years of vetting from multiple agencies, more than any other way to enter, is not a way for terrorists to try to gain access to this country at all. What we see is that this terrorist ban is putting focus--excuse me, this Executive order is putting focus in areas that do not produce safety but do have the collateral consequence of making us less safe. The order indefinitely suspends the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the United States. The majority of these folks are women and children who are fleeing barrel bombs, chemical attacks, military attacks on homes and schools. They are fleeing famine, they are fleeing starvation, they are fleeing the same violent extremism that we ourselves are trying to fight against. While the Syrian people face violence, terror, and oppression, the President has chosen to equate helpless refugees with those who are actually perpetrating the terror. Despite the fact that we have this stringent years-long vetting program for Iraqis and Afghans who risked their lives to help Americans by acting as interpreters, the ban ends--astonishingly, it ends a Special Immigrant Visa Program and substitutes it with nothing. What is this Special Immigrant Visa Program that many of my colleagues have spoken about? It is a program that is specifically there for Iraqis and Afghans who helped America and put their families in danger, who put their necks out for us. They put themselves out there to assist our servicemen and servicewomen.