There is no
evidence of that, and I certainly do not believe it to be true. What I
do believe is that a ``blame the victim'' tactic is reprehensible and
in itself an anti-Semitic strategy. The President has also dedicated a significant amount of time to
trying to make the country fear refugees, to demonize refugees. Many of
us grew up in a world in which Lady Liberty's words of ``give us your
tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free''
stirred our hearts because, unless you are 100 percent Native American,
you are tied in through your parents, your grandparents, your great-
grandparents, your ancestors. You are tied to those who immigrated to
the United States, who came here, often fleeing persecution, often
fleeing famine. This Nation gave them a place to stand and in which to
build a new life and thrive and hand down a better, stronger nation to
their children. That is a property of our history. That is a value
deeply rooted in our hearts. The President, instead, has dedicated his energy to attacking
refugees, those, like our ancestors, who came here, fleeing persecution
and fleeing famine, especially Syrian refugees, who are fleeing for
their lives in search of a safe haven. He has falsely claimed they
represent a ``great Trojan horse'' that threatens the safety of
Americans. Mr. Trump says these victims of war have to be subjected to
extreme vetting because we have no idea who these people are or where
they come from. The fact is that we do know who they are. We know
exactly where they come from because before they can come here as
refugees, they already go through extreme vetting. It takes 18 months
to 2 years of vetting, on average, before refugees are given tickets to
come to the United States of America, and if at any point during that
18 to 24 months something does not add up, they do not get the tickets. Now, if ISIS or another terrorist organization wants to get people
who are dangerous into our country, they do not go through an 18- or a
24-month vetting process. No. They come on tourist visas or student
visas or business visas. Going through the refugee process would be the
worst possible way to do it. As an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute reminded us in
October of 2015, of the 784,000 refugees who have been resettled in our
country since September 11, 2001, 3 have been arrested for planning
terrorist activities. None of them got past the planning phase, and
only one of those three was talking about potential attacks here in the
United States. The others were talking about sending money and weapons
to al-Qaida. In other words, no one has been injured by those 784,000
refugees. These are just some of the pieces of the President's authoritarian
strategy to demonize groups, to create hate, to create fear, and to try
to consolidate power. As a result of his activities, we have seen waves
of hate crimes and violence and bigotry sweep across our Nation.
Identified stereotypes
Generalization that refugees are a 'Trojan horse' and a threat to national security.
Keywords matched
refugee visas immigrated refugees