And, Mr. President, when you tear down Muslims, we stand with our
Muslim brothers and sisters because this is the United States of
America, where we value religious freedom, where we value religious
tolerance. This is a nation of immigrants. If you are not 100 percent
Native American, then you are either an immigrant yourself or you are
the child or the grandchild or the great-grandchild of an immigrant. Most of us can track members of our family who came from the ravages of
war or the ravages of drought or the ravages of oppression to come here
to this soil, this land of freedom. James Madison remarked: ``America
was indebted to immigration for her settlement and for her
prosperity.'' This remains just as true today as it was in Madison's
day. Here we stand, but the President of the United States has denied
access to our Nation to a group of people based on nothing more than
religious beliefs, betraying our values of religious tolerance and
shutting the doors on refugees. The President has said this is not a
ban on those of the Muslim faith, but of course it is a ban on those of
Muslim faith because it is a ban on seven nations that are Muslim
nations, with an exception made for individuals who are Christians so
it is nothing more than a ban on Muslims. The President says this is about protecting our citizens, but let us
be very clear about that. Numerous refugees have come to our land,
numerous immigrants, and there have been zero fatal terror attacks
carried out by the immigrants from the seven countries listed in the
order. Zero. We have been attacked by individuals from other countries
which are not listed in the order, from Saudi Arabia, United Arab
Emirates, Egypt, and Lebanon.
Keywords matched
immigration immigrant immigrants refugees