Madam Speaker, as we all know, America has long opened her arms to
persons who flee persecution, who wish to rebuild their lives and
become good citizens here. My hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska, is a
diverse, welcoming community with a number of first-generation
Americans, and we are the better for it. However, when there is chaos
and disorder at our border or if there is uncertainty in immigration
policy and procedures, this problem undermines the ability of our
country to be generous; or, worse, it affects our safety. There are two
principles being held in the balance here: keeping America safe and
keeping America generous. President Trump's executive order to protect the Nation from foreign
terrorist entry into the United States has suspended all new refugee
admissions into the U.S. for 120 days. In addition, it blocks all
travelers for 90 days from seven countries of concern--Iraq, Iran,
Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen--which was a list, by the way,
created by the Obama administration in 2015. Refugees from Syria are
banned indefinitely, and travelers from these countries with a green
card will be allowed since they are permanent United States residents. Madam Speaker, from my perspective, I believe it is reasonable to
pause and review our refugee policy from dangerous parts of the world;
but, clearly, the implementation of the policy has caused some
confusion, difficulty, and concern, some of which has been clarified. As an example, there is a Yazidi man named Nawaf, who was one of
those military translators--again, putting himself at great risk to
serve alongside our troops. Nawaf visited my office last Monday.
Keywords matched
immigration refugee green
card Refugees