Speech #CREC-2017-02-01-pt1-PgH831-2_t15

Speaker, I urge Members to vote against this previous question so that the bill to overturn President Trump's ill- advised ban on travel can be addressed. There has been a lot of dustup and discussion about this, but, really, if you read the order, it is very clear what it does. It suspends entry for 90 days of all immigrants--that is green card holders--and nonimmigrants from seven Muslim majority countries. It also suspends all refugee admission for 120 days. Now, there has been discussion about the Middle East refugees, but if you look at last year, most of the refugees who came in were from the Congo and also from Burma. Those individuals who have suffered--they have been tortured--are going to stay in the refugee camps at least for 120 days, and, obviously, this disrupts the program. This will be a much longer end to the refugee program. Now, there is an exception, and the President has said he wants to let Christian refugees in, and the order itself says minority religions. There is a problem not only with violating the law because the Immigration and Nationality Act prohibits discrimination based on nationality and on religion, but also the premise is that Christians who had been persecuted were not admitted as refugees. That is simply false. That is false. There were large numbers of refugees who have been persecuted, including Christians. This order violates the Immigration and Nationality Act. It also violates the Constitution. That is why my bill should be brought up.