To say that these have been tumultuous days is certainly an
understatement. What happened over this past weekend really was
unsettling to many people all across the United States. Candidate Trump made it clear that he had strong feelings about
refugees and strong feelings about immigration, but I don't think
anyone anticipated the Executive orders that were issued by the Trump
administration, by the President, on Friday. The net result of that we
saw across the United States at O'Hare International Airport, JFK,
Dulles, many other airports. International travelers, en route, learned
that the laws of the United States were being changed because of
President Trump's Executive order. As a result, there was a lot of
confusion and uncertainty, and hardships were created. Individuals who
were coming to the United States as refugees were being turned away. For the record, this decision to indefinitely suspend the admission
of Syrian refugees into the United States is not a decision based on
fact. Since 9/11, since the war in Syria began, we have not had a
single--not one--instance of terrorism by a Syrian refugee--not one. The United States has not stepped up as other countries like Canada
have in admitting Syrian refugees. We have gone to great lengths,
extraordinary lengths, to give background checks that are as consuming
as one can imagine, to verify their identity and their safety to the
United States. Overwhelmingly, these Syrian refugees are the victims of a deadly war
which has gone on for years, and overwhelmingly they are children with
their mothers. I have met them. I sat down with them in Chicago. It is
heartbreaking to think that they have lived through war, may have been
lucky enough to make it to a refugee camp, and then waited for years--
for years--to be cleared by the United States and be given a chance to
come to this country. It has to be a heartbreaking process. Through it all, many of them
have endured losses in their families that they will never be able to
forget--injuries and deaths of people whom they love. These are men and
women in Syria escaping a deadly war and the terrorists who have
ravaged that country. They have tried to come to the United States for
safety and security. The history of refugees in America is one that in modern version is
very admirable, but unfortunately before--during World War II--it was a
sad chapter in our history. Not only did we inter about 120,000
Japanese Americans in camps during the war for fear that they would
betray the United States, but during that war, time and again, the
administration of President Roosevelt as well as Congress refused to
allow those who were escaping the Holocaust in Nazi Germany to come to
the United States. Here on this Senate floor where I stand, an effort was made by
Senator Robert Wagner of New York to admit 10,000 Jewish children out
of Nazi Germany into the United States so that their parents would have
the peace of mind that they would not be killed by the war or the
Holocaust.
Keywords matched
immigration refugee refugees