Speech #CREC-2017-01-31-pt1-PgH751_t1

Mr. Speaker, I am an American man, born in Chicago, to parents who were born citizens of the United States. The ban on legal immigration from seven countries does not impact me or my family directly, but, as an American, I am speaking up today. I am an immigrant. The proposed roundup of millions of immigrants will not hit my house directly, but, as an American, I am standing up today to say I, too, am undocumented. I have not fled systematic persecution, but, today, like a lot of Americans, I am speaking out and saying clearly that I, too, am a refugee. Today, I am an 81-year-old man who was originally from Iran who traveled with a heart problem to the United States--with my American family and a green card in my hand--and was detained at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. Today, I am a Fulbright scholar who was put on a plane back to Iran because our government did not understand what the new President was doing, how he was doing it, or what people already traveling should do. Today, I am a citizen of the United Kingdom--I am English--with a green card, who was blocked entering at O'Hare with my U.S. citizen wife and my U.S. citizen child. That is who I am today. Today, I am a student who is in the middle of my academic career at the University of Chicago who does not know whether I can come back to school and continue my education. Today, I am one of more than 67,000 refugees who is already approved for travel and certified by both the United States and the U.N. in a painstaking process that took me years to complete, but I am stranded overseas. Today, I am gay or Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Shia, Sunni, am from a tribe or ethnic group that is systematically targeted for persecution, or am living in a country anywhere in the world that cannot protect my basic safety, and the United States is closed to me. Today, I am an immigrant who has a green card and who has followed all of the rules to the letter, but I cannot renew my green card or lawfully apply for citizenship here in the U.S. because I am from one of seven mostly Muslim countries on Trump's list where, incidentally, there are no Trump hotels, buildings, or golf courses. By now, the entire world knows that the President of the United States screwed up bigly last week and caused an international and domestic crisis and that his staff is lying when they say it was a ``huge success.'' When the German Chancellor has to lecture your President about the Geneva Convention, you have made one hell of a bad decision. When the Prime Minister of England is saying on one day that the U.S. and Britain have a special relationship but that, on the very next day, you are keeping her citizens out of your country when they are green card holders, your country has made a mistake. When Rudy Giuliani--of all people--makes it clear that the President requested a Muslim ban and that they dressed up the policy to make it look better but still carved out exceptions to help Christians, you are probably acting in an unconstitutional manner. That is not what one but two Federal judges thought: that there are significant enough constitutional issues that have been raised by recent executive actions to stop the President's order from being implemented. Honestly, even at this hour, I am not sure they are fully complying with the orders or will reverse the actions of government officers at airports who coerced--intimidated--green card holders into signing away their rights and being deported. On Sunday, the glaring bald spot of the President's executive order was combed over by the Secretary of Homeland Security, who said that keeping out travelers who already live in the U.S. and have green cards is not in the interests of the United States, to which the entire world said, sarcastically: Ya' think? Today, I am an American, and I am standing up. Today, I am one of the millions of Americans who went to airports, Trump hotels, or town squares and who is marching peacefully, praying privately, and preparing personally to act as an advocate for immigrants and other families in our communities--women, Jews, gentiles, LGBT, and every one of every color and shape. Today, they did not come for us, but we could not be quiet. We joined arms and worked together as Americans.