Bush, that Republican President,
was to President Donald Trump, this Republican President. Senator Dianne Feinstein is the ranking Democrat on the Senate
Judiciary Committee. She has introduced a resolution, on which I am
proud to be one of the original cosponsors, to repeal and rescind these
reprehensible President Donald Trump Executive orders on refugees and
immigration. We are in the midst of the worst refugee crisis in the history of the
world. More than 65 million people have been forcibly displaced from
their homes. The brutal Syrian conflict, which is the epicenter of this
humanitarian crisis, has killed hundreds of thousands, injured more
than a million, and displaced half of the population of that country. In some areas, children literally starve to death in Syria. This
conflict has forced more than 4.7 million refugees to flee. Around 70
percent of them are women and children who are looking for a safe place
in this world. Half of Syrian children today are not in school because
of this conflict and because of the forces that have dispersed them
around the world. Millions in and outside of Syria need humanitarian
assistance. Last week--the same week President Trump signed this awful Executive
order on refugees--the United Nations issued an appeal for $4.6 billion
to meet the basic needs of Syrian refugees and struggling communities
hosting them in neighboring countries. Lebanon is a country where I believe half of the children in school
today are Syrian. Jordan, one of our best friends and allies in the
Middle East, has made more sacrifices on behalf of refugees per capita
than any nation on Earth. What message does it send to our friends in
Jordan that while they risk the security and safety and stability of
their nation to absorb these refugees from Syria and around the world,
that as an official policy of President Donald Trump, the United States
no longer will even consider allowing a Syrian refugee to come to the
United States? How can we in good conscience ask the King of Jordan to
risk his monarchy and his country for refugees when President Trump
says they are not allowed in the United States? Earlier this month, I am happy to report, more than 1,700 Jewish
rabbis called on our government to maintain and strengthen the refugee
program for refugees of all ethnic and religious backgrounds--not to
halt it, pause it, or restrict it. This weekend, I was so proud of the
Catholic cardinal in Chicago, Blase Cupich, who came out and said the
Executive orders of Donald Trump are not consistent with American
values and certainly are not consistent with the beliefs of the
Catholic Church. Religious leaders all across the country are speaking
out. They understand that this is more than a political test; this is a
moral test of who we are as Americans. Many of the refugees who came to this country were fleeing regimes
that were hostile to the United States. We gave them safety. Refugees are the most carefully vetted and investigated of all
travelers. Before refugees are admitted into the United States, they go
through security screening that is almost unheard of. All of that
screening takes place before they can even consider being allowed to
set foot in America, and Syrian refugees go through an even stricter
review. Extreme vetting? I have news for this President: Syrian
refugees and refugees all over the world are already going through
extreme vetting. Shutting down the Refugee Resettlement Program won't protect our
security. It plays into ISIS's argument that the United States is
waging a war against Islam. Listen to what Michael Hayden, former Director of the CIA and
National Security Agency under Presidents Bush and Obama, said about
President Trump's Executive order:
It's a horrible move.
Keywords matched
immigration Refugee Refugees refugee refugees