[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 148 (Tuesday, October 2, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H11074]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      ACKNOWLEDGING IRAQIS AT RISK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 4, 2007, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) is 
recognized during morning-hour debate for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, there is fierce debate and dissension on 
this floor and in Congress and around the country about the war in 
Iraq. This disagreement runs deep. It is profound. I believe it to be 
sincere. But there is one thing that everybody will agree on regardless 
of whether they think this war is merited or not, regardless of whether 
they think it has been prosecuted in a reasonable and efficient manner 
or not. They can acknowledge the debt and obligation that the United 
States has to over 4 million Iraqis who have been forced to flee their 
homes. This is a humanitarian crisis that rivals Darfur. It is the 
worst ongoing humanitarian crisis in the world at this point.
  Over 2 million Iraqis have fled their country. And while there is 
debate over the precise numbers these days, whether it is an additional 
25,000 a month or 50,000 a month, whether it is going up or going down, 
no one disputes that they are still fleeing their homes by the 
thousands.
  I first became involved with the problem of the Iraqis who are at 
risk because they help the United States, guides and translators, when 
I started working with a group of high school students in Portland, 
Oregon, at Lincoln High School, who were working in turn with some 
Oregon National Guard members who had returned to Oregon but were 
trying desperately to save the life of a young woman who had served as 
their translator. Because she had helped the Americans, she was 
targeted. She and her family were targeted by extremists. It took 
months. Time doesn't permit going through all the hurdles that we 
encountered. Luckily, that young woman is safely in the United States 
now going to college and she is no longer at risk, although afraid to 
show her face or to be identified specifically for fear that her family 
would in turn be targeted. I made a commitment to those young people in 
the high school and in the Oregon National Guard that we would work to 
introduce comprehensive legislation to make it easier to meet the 
obligation to those who took America at its word, who helped our brave 
soldiers, and who in turn now have their lives imperiled.
  We have introduced comprehensive legislation that would increase the 
allowable number that could come, that would put somebody in charge of 
this responsibility, make it possible to actually be processed in 
country.
  It is ironic that we have the largest embassy in the world in 
Baghdad, and yet the Iraqis have to leave the country to seek refugee 
status. They can't go to the green zone and this vast embassy. They 
have to leave the country in order to apply for asylum.
  I frankly was encouraged that last week our colleagues in the Senate 
made important progress by passing an amendment to the Senate defense 
authorization bill that would start to address the crisis by including 
some of the elements in the comprehensive legislation that I have 
introduced. It is an important first step, but it is only a first step. 
It is time for the United States to do the right thing for these people 
whose lives are imperiled.
  When we started this process at the beginning of the fiscal year, the 
United States was going to allow 7,000 people in the country. A small 
number, actually, by comparison to what little Sweden, for example, was 
willing to do, a country a fraction of our size, and they aren't the 
country who engineered this war nor are occupying Iraq. Well, in a few 
months that goal of 7,000 was reduced to 2,000. As the fiscal year 
ended this last weekend, we fell short even of that reduced goal: Only 
1,600 of these Iraqi refugees were brought into this country.
  Our failure to step up is having serious operational consequences. 
Ambassador Crocker in a memo that has been I suppose leaked but widely 
published, widely disseminated here in Washington, DC, points out that 
the failure to help these people who are helping us actually undermines 
the ability to have other guides and interpreters and people working 
with us. We risk leaving a legacy of despair, undermining our 
credibility in the Middle East, to say nothing of the thousands of 
people whose lives are at risk.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in passing comprehensive legislation 
that will deal with this humanitarian crisis, at least for the people 
who are most at risk for having put their trust in the United States as 
they worked to help us.

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