Mr. Speaker, it should not be this way. This is a country that was
built by immigrants. It is a country that has welcomed people from
across the world to come here as a refuge, as a sanctuary. My State of
Washington is one of the top States in the country for refugee
resettlement. The reality is we are destroying the very principles of
compassion, of humanity, of being a refuge, of building this country
with immigrants and refugees. Literally thousands of people came to the airport to say: We welcome
refugees; we welcome immigrants. This is not the America that we know and love. We are better than
this. This is not the first time I have had to fight against these illegal
deportations. After 9/11, we had similar situations, not as bad as
this, but we had the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System,
NSEERS. It required that men from 25 Muslim and Arab countries were
going to be fingerprinted and registered.
Keywords matched
refugee deportations immigrants refugees