[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 172 (Monday, November 30, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8188-S8190]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SYRIAN REFUGEES

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, it was just a few weeks ago that--I 
guess 10 days ago, actually--the Republican Presidential candidates 
went to the Presiding Officer's State to meet with religious leaders, 
Christian leaders, and were seeking their support. Of course they all 
want the support of everyone living in Iowa because the Iowa

[[Page S8189]]

caucus is coming up pretty soon. I thought about that as they went to 
meet these Christian leaders in Iowa, just across the river from my 
home State of Illinois. I thought about how they had just left their 
discussions here in Washington, talking about Syrian refugees.
  The most humbling humanitarian crisis in the world today is occurring 
in Syria. They have had a civil war which has gone on for years. 
Millions of people have been displaced and thousands have been killed. 
I met some of them just a few months ago when I went to Greece and saw 
these refugees streaming away from the camps in Syria trying to find a 
safe place. I can't imagine what it must be like for a husband to turn 
to his wife and say: We have to move. Pick up the kids. Whatever you 
can carry is all that we are taking. We are going to try to find a safe 
place to live.
  I saw hundreds and thousands of them--families streaming out of this 
war-torn area. Very few of them have ever made it to the United 
States--about 2,000. Part of the reason is we have an elaborate, 
lengthy background check before anyone can be admitted as a refugee. In 
fact, it takes anywhere from 18 to 24 months of waiting to see if you 
might legally become a refugee in the United States of America.
  Well, these Republican Presidential candidates and 25 Governors have 
said: We don't want any Syrian refugees. We are not going to allow them 
to come to the United States during a period of a ``pause''--as some 
say. Others have taken more extreme positions. It is hard to imagine. 
If our goal is to keep Americans safe, why are these Republican 
candidates focusing on Syrian refugees? You see, since we have allowed 
about 2,000 refugees into the United States over the last 4 years, not 
one single Syrian refugee has been arrested and accused of terrorist 
activity--not one. After a lengthy background check, we believe we have 
done everything humanly possible to keep those away who would be any 
danger to our country.
  I met some of those Syrian refugees who have made it here, in the 
city of Chicago. If you think they are terrorist threats to the United 
States, for goodness' sake, take a few minutes and sit down and talk to 
them and hear their stories of how their families went through extreme 
hardships--some of them with children who were being killed in Syria 
during the war--and as they fled with the clothes on their backs, they 
appealed to the United States to be allowed to come here as refugees 
and then waited up to 2 years to go through every one of the possible 
background checks before they finally made it.
  What happens when they get here? Well, initially they need some help. 
Many of them don't speak English very well. Some of them are not 
financially ready to take care of themselves. But do you know what 
happens after a few months? They find a place, go to work, and join a 
long parade of those who have come to the United States as refugees and 
called it home. That includes 400,000 Vietnamese refugees who came to 
the United States and are now a great part of our country. It includes 
650,000 Cuban refugees who came to the United States, escaping Castro. 
Included in those 650,000 refugees were the fathers of two U.S. 
Senators, one of whom is running for President of the United States. 
They came to the United States and made an important contribution to 
the Senate and our Nation--refugees. I heard one of them say: Well, it 
was different then. We are dealing with terrorism today.
  Really? What were we dealing with when we accepted Cuban refugees? We 
were dealing with a Communist regime in Cuba that was friendly with the 
Soviet Union, which had nuclear weapons pointed at the United States, 
and we were accepting refugees from that country. I am glad we did. We 
were living in a very dangerous time when they were accepted, and on 
balance we found that history has proven that those refugees from Cuba 
have become an important part of the United States.
  We accepted over 200,000 Soviet Jews who were being persecuted in 
that country and wanted to come to the United States so that they could 
practice their religion freely. In my hometown of Springfield, IL, the 
synagogues opened their doors and said: We will sponsor these families 
as they come to our Midwestern community. We brought refugees from the 
Soviet Union in, and they became part of the United States.
  The story is told over and over again. Yet Republican Presidential 
nominees and Governors describe refugees as just terrorists on the run. 
They say they are not carefully screened and are still allowed in the 
United States. That is the way they describe it. It is not true. We 
know it is not true.
  When I consider those Republican Presidential nominees going to Iowa 
to pose for holy pictures with religious leaders after they said we 
would exclude these poor people who are simply trying to find a safe 
place for their families, it is hard to imagine.
  This morning's New York Times tells a totally different story. Madam 
President, I ask unanimous consent that this article in the New York 
Times be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the New York Times, Nov. 17, 2015]

 A Manhattan Hardware Store Welcomes Refugees as Governors Vow To Shut 
                                Them Out

                             (By Jim Dwyer)

       Chris Christie of New Jersey and at least 25 other 
     governors have said they do not want Syrian refugees to come 
     to their states.
       Then again, there is Wankel's, a family-owned hardware 
     store that opened on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in the 
     19th century. For decades, it has hired people who came to 
     the United States fleeing violence and persecution.
       ``People coming from really bad situations, trying to make 
     a better life in America,'' said Sean Wankel, 32, vice 
     president of Wankel's. ``Or a life.''
       The refugees come to Wankel's through resettlement agencies 
     like Catholic Charities or the International Rescue Committee 
     and stay for a few months or years as they get their bearings 
     in a new world. On a wall map, colored pins mark the three 
     dozen countries from which the Wankel workers have come.
       Felix Royce, 39, started in the store two months ago. Like 
     many before him, he is new to retail work; in Nigeria, he had 
     been a pastor and an author. He said the picture on his book 
     jacket made him a target of the Boko Haram, a murderous sect 
     of anti-Western Islamists who rose in a swamp of official 
     corruption and violence. Among Boko Haram's infamous 
     atrocities was the kidnapping of scores of schoolgirls in 
     2014.
       ``They organize mock street fights and send little kids 
     with suicide bombs,'' Mr. Royce said. ``ISIS is more sensible 
     than Boko Haram. You would have insiders, police officers and 
     politicians who collaborate with the Boko Haram. You didn't 
     know who to trust.''
       In fear of his life, he said, he made his way to Houston 
     and applied for asylum, appearing without a lawyer three 
     times in front of immigration judges before being formally 
     admitted to the United States. He, his wife and their two 
     children now live in the Bronx, aided by the International 
     Rescue Committee.
       ``I am sitting here,'' he said, ``trying to put my life 
     together. We are just trying to find our feet.''
       Mr. Royce said he had been closely following the news of 
     the attacks in Paris on Friday evening by bombers and gunmen 
     connected to the Islamic State, also called ISIS or ISIL.
       A tiny fraction of the refugees leaving Syria have been 
     permitted into the United States--fewer than nine a week 
     between Oct. 1, 2011, and Sept. 30 of this year, a total of 
     1,854--as an estimated four million people fled the 
     deteriorating nation. President Obama said the United States 
     would accept 10,000 refugees from Syria in the coming fiscal 
     year. Republicans in Congress and in statehouses are 
     objecting, saying that terrorists like those involved in the 
     Paris attacks could camouflage themselves in the stream of 
     legitimate refugees.
       Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, the 
     newly inaugurated House speaker, called for a ``pause'' in 
     the refugee resettlement program. Mr. Christie, seeking the 
     Republican presidential nomination, released a letter he sent 
     to the president.
       ``I write to inform you that I will not accept any refugees 
     from Syria in the wake of the deadly terrorist attack in 
     Paris,'' he wrote, saying federal screening procedures were 
     inadequate. ``Neither you nor any federal official can 
     guarantee that Syrian refugees will not be part of any 
     terroristic activity.''
       New Yorkers might imagine police barricades being set up 
     around the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, to prevent 
     people from fleeing the collapsing towers because no one 
     could guarantee they would not be part of any future 
     terroristic activity.
       It is not clear whether Mr. Christie or any other governor 
     can refuse to ``accept'' refugees. As a practical matter, New 
     Jersey does not have border controls, and probably could not 
     set up traffic lanes for citizenship papers at places like 
     the Lincoln Tunnel.
       Other Republican candidates, including Ted Cruz and Jeb 
     Bush, said they would permit Christian refugees from Syria, 
     but not Muslims.

[[Page S8190]]

       At the hardware store where he has found work, in a city 
     where he and his family have taken refuge, Mr. Royce was 
     polite in assessing the proposed restrictions.
       ``Some people are saying, let them be, let them stay 
     there,'' he said. ``I wouldn't subscribe to that. There are 
     innocent ones out there. This would mean there is no hope for 
     them. If you screen, there are good ones among the bad. 
     Everyone from Syria is not from ISIS. If you leave everybody, 
     ISIS will take advantage of them.''
       Mr. Wankel was asked if his business had room for Syrian 
     refugees.
       ``Certainly,'' he said. ``If they are coming through the 
     International Rescue Committee or Catholic Charities, I'd do 
     it. They have a tough life. If I was in Syria, I'd want to 
     get the heck out.''

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, it is a story about a man named Sean 
Wankel. His family has owned a hardware store on the Upper East Side of 
Manhattan since the 19th century. For decades, the Wankel family has 
been hiring people who came to the United States to escape violence and 
persecution--asylees and refugees. The owner of the store, Sean Wenkel, 
said: ``People coming from really bad situations, trying to make a 
better life in America.'' Wankel, of course, takes these refugees in to 
work in their store. They are referred to him by Catholic charities and 
the International Rescue Committee. They stay for a few months or years 
as they get their bearings in the new world. He has a wall map in the 
hardware store with colored pens marking three dozen countries from 
which these workers have come.
  The article goes on to tell the story of Felix Royce, who came to the 
United States a few months ago, from persecution by terrorists in 
Nigeria, and got a job in this hardware store.
  It is interesting that for decades this man and his family have 
intentionally brought in these refugees and asylees and made them part 
of their business and life, while nearby, the Governor of New Jersey is 
quaking in his boots at the thought of a refugee coming into the State 
of New Jersey. What a contrast.
  The gentleman at the hardware store said that it is not clear if the 
Republican Governor of New Jersey even understands who these people 
are.
  I will quote Mr. Royce from Nigeria again:

       Some people are saying, let them be, let them stay there. I 
     wouldn't subscribe to that. There are innocent ones out 
     there. This would mean there is no hope for them. If you 
     screen, there are good ones among the bad. Everyone from 
     Syria is not from ISIS. If you leave everybody, ISIS will 
     take advantage of them.

  It is hard for me to imagine some of the things that have been said 
recently by some of the Presidential candidates on the other side. It 
isn't just a matter of turning away Syrian refugees even with the 
clearance practices we have, but some have gone to even more extreme 
statements, saying that we should never allow people of the Muslim 
religion to come to the United States or that they should somehow be 
identified in this country. If you are a student of history, you will 
know that kind of paranoia and that kind of prejudice has exhibited 
itself many times in our history. We look back on it now not with pride 
but with sadness to think that we reached the point where we treated 
people that way.
  In May of 1939, when a shipload of Jews were trying to escape the 
Nazis in Germany--900 of them on the SS St. Louis--and came to Miami, 
they were turned away. They went back to Europe. Two-hundred of those 
Jews perished in the Holocaust because they were turned away from the 
United States of America. And when Senator Robert Wagner of New York 
suggested that we allow 10,000 Jewish children to come to the United 
States to escape the Nazis, that was defeated in this Congress. There 
were Japanese internment camps and other situations just like that--
sad, fearful things that were done that we look back on now and say: We 
can't repeat those mistakes. But the language that is coming out of 
many today is an echo of the past decisions--decisions we look back on 
now and say never again. Sadly, they are being suggested even today.
  Our first obligation is to keep America safe, and if we are going to 
do that, let's look to things that truly do keep us safe. Let's say 
that if you are on the terrorist watch list in the United States of 
America, you cannot legally purchase guns or explosives. That is not a 
radical idea; that is something we need to do to change the law. 
Instead of focusing on 70,000 refugees who go through 2 years of 
background checks before they come here, let's focus on the 20 million 
who visit the United States without visas each year from Europe and 38 
countries around the world and make sure they have been carefully 
checked before they come to the United States.
  There are things we can do to keep America safe, but denying access 
to refugees who are suffering now with their children in the hopes of 
finding a safe place is not American. It is not who we are. It is not 
who we should be.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________