[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 43 (Thursday, March 17, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1594-S1596]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
By Mr. COTTON:
S. 2708. A bill to provide for the admission to the United States of
up to 10,000 Syrian religious minorities as refugees of special
humanitarian concern in each of the fiscal years 2016 through 2020; to
the Committee on the Judiciary.
Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, 6 months ago, a 12-year-old boy stood
before a crowd in a Syrian village not far from Aleppo. This boy was
Christian and standing above him were Islamic State terrorists holding
knives. In the crowd was the boy's father, a Christian minister.
Methodically, the terrorists began cutting off the young boy's fingers.
Amidst his screams, they turned to the minister, his father. If he
renounced his faith and in their terms returned to Islam, his son's
suffering would stop. In the end, however, these ISIS terrorists killed
the boy, killed his father, and killed two other Christians solely over
the faith they professed. They did so by crucifixion.
In the time of Christ, the cross was not just a means of execution
but a brutal and public warning to all. Because of Christ's suffering,
the cross was transformed into a revered symbol of His sacrifice and
promise of salvation, but today it is clear ISIS seeks to turn the
cross once again into a message of dread.
Eight other Christians in the village that day were also killed. They
were executed by public beheading, but not before ISIS barbarians raped
the two women among the victims and forced the crowd to witness the
atrocity.
Today was the deadline set by law for Secretary of State Kerry to
present Congress with an evaluation of the persecution of Christians,
Yazidis, and other religious minorities in Syria and Iraq. I am
heartened Secretary Kerry this morning took the needed step of
declaring the systemic murder of religious minorities by ISIS what it
plainly is: genocide.
The nature of these horrific crimes of ISIS has not been a secret. It
is no secret that the story of the torture and death of that 12-year-
old Syrian boy, his minister father, and 10 other Christians is
repeated many times over in different villages, with different victims
of different religions throughout the region. It is no secret that
hundreds of thousands of religious minorities in Syria and Iraq have
been driven by war and violence from homes and lands they have held for
generations. It is no secret ISIS terrorists have destroyed Christian
churches, desecrated holy ancient shrines, and dug up Christian graves
and smashed their tombstones. It is no secret bishops, priests, and
other clerical leaders are being abducted and murdered. It is no secret
ISIS terrorists capture Yazidi women and girls and lock them into a
life of sexual slavery and repeated rape. Many of these victims choose
to take their own lives, seeing suicide as their only escape amidst
hopelessness and unimaginable suffering. It is no secret that thousands
of Christians and other religious minorities have been systematically
raped and tortured, beheaded, crucified, burned alive, and buried in
mass graves, if buried at all. It is no secret the word we should use
to describe the whole of these atrocities--the word we must use--is
``genocide.''
The plain reality is that the Islamic State is seeking to eradicate
Christians, Yazidis, Sabean-Mandeans, Jews, and other religious groups
it sees as apostates and infidels. This is part of its fanatical focus
on establishing a caliphate first in the Middle East and eventually
across the rest of the world.
Christians, Yazidis, and others who have managed to find refuge have
seen ISIS's genocidal campaign firsthand. They can list name after name
of missing family members--wives and daughters kidnapped into sexual
slavery,
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sons and brothers killed, and others spirited away to unknown fates.
These victims know the truth of the genocide occurring in Syria and
Iraq, and now that truth is recognized officially by the United States
of America.
There are those who wavered on whether this was genocide. They feared
that uttering this truth would compel U.S. action to stop the genocide.
My answer is--and? A mortal enemy who wishes to commit mass terrorist
atrocities against the United States is also systematically persecuting
and exterminating Christians and other religious minorities. When will
our national security interests ever overlap more perfectly with our
moral sentiment than now? We can and we ought to stop ISIS dead, stop
them before they kill more Americans, stop them before they eliminate
Christian communities that have existed since the days of Christ
himself.
Still others argue that while a genocide may be occurring,
recognizing it may somehow play into ISIS's propaganda that it is
fighting a righteous jihad against a supposed new Crusade. I never
understood this argument. To stay silent in the face of ISIS's
propaganda is to accommodate that propaganda. To cede any power to
ISIS's narrative is to bend the light of truth to the hard darkness of
a lie. Standing up for the practitioners of religions born in the
Middle East and calling the region home since the beginning of recorded
history is not a new Crusade. It is a defense of world order
demonstrated through the periods of peaceful coexistence of the many
religions in those ancient lands--an existence that today is threatened
with extinction by ISIS's barbarism.
Today the United States rightly recognizes this genocide, but we must
also take action to relieve it. ISIS is a threat to the United States,
our allies, and to the stability of the whole Middle East. Destroying
ISIS and stopping its malignant expansion is a core national security
interest of the United States, but stopping ISIS and the depraved
ideology that enables it is also a pursuit that aligns with our highest
ideals and humanitarian principles.
I and many of my colleagues in the Senate have deep disagreements
with the President's policy to defeat ISIS. For 2 years his policy of
confusion, delay, and paralysis has failed to stop these terrorists. An
entirely new approach that has the United States in the lead of a
determined coalition is badly needed, but it is not only President
Obama's strategic approach that is ill-considered. His policy on Syrian
refugee resettlement is as well. Because the United States unwisely
relies on the United Nations for all referrals of refugees seeking
resettlement in the United States, Christians and other religious
minorities fleeing persecution are the victims of unintentional
discrimination when seeking asylum and protection in the United States.
Last year, of the 1,790 Syrian refugees resettled in the United
States, only 41 were religious minorities. Of that 41, 29 were
Christian. That means that while 13 percent of Syria's prewar
population consisted of religious minorities, only 2.3 percent of the
refugees who make it to the United States are religious minorities.
Without doubt, Syrians of all confessions are being victimized by this
savage war and are facing unimaginable suffering, but only Christians
and other religious minorities are the deliberate targets of systemic
persecution and genocide. Their ancient communities are at risk of
extermination. Their ancestral homes and religious sites are being
erased from the Middle Eastern map. Christians and other minorities
should not be shut out from the small number of refugees who find
shelter in the United States. We ought to help ensure that these faith
communities survive, but why are Christians underrepresented among the
refugees? There are a number of factors. Perhaps chief among them is
that the United States, for all intents and purposes, relies
exclusively on the U.N. refugee agency to identify candidates for
resettlement. According to the State Department, less than 1 percent of
the thousands of Syrian refugees referred by the U.N. to the United
States are religious minorities.
Let me stress that this underrepresentation is not the result of
intentional discrimination. The U.N. does praiseworthy and hard work in
relieving the suffering of refugees around the world and, as a result,
improving the security and stability of nations in and near conflict
and disaster zones, but it is well established that many religious
minorities in Syria are very reluctant to register as refugees with the
United Nations because they fear facing even more persecution. The U.N.
itself has reported that minority communities ``fear that registration
might bring retribution from other refugees'' in camps or other areas
in which they sought safe haven. The U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom has reported that Christians refrain from registering
with the U.N. because they fear being marked for revenge by forces
loyal to Bashar al-Assad should he remain in power in Syria.
Whether these fears are well-founded or not, the reality is, they
exist and they deter Christians from seeking U.N. protection. While the
U.N. has sought to educate minority populations on the safety of the
registration system, the fact remains that only 1 percent of the
millions of Syrian refugees who registered with the U.N. are non-
Muslim.
The United States ought not to depend solely on the U.N. for refugee
resettlement referrals. If we are to do our part in saving ancient
faith communities from genocide, we must find alternate ways to
identify persecuted people to whom we can grant safe haven.
Today I am introducing legislation to create that alternate way. The
Religious Persecution Relief Act would grant religious minorities
fleeing persecution from groups like ISIS and other groups in Syria
priority status so they can apply directly to the U.S. resettlement
program, without going through the U.N. first. It will set aside 10,000
resettlement slots annually that must be devoted to religious
minorities.
The priority status, known as P-2 status, will allow religious
minorities to skip the U.N. referral process, and it will fast track
the process by which we confirm that they are in fact targets of
persecution and genocide. To answer in advance a most urgent and
understandable question, those who apply for P-2 status will be subject
to the exact same security vetting process as all other refugee
applicants. It is my strong position that the United States must work
with known religious leaders in the region and pursue other proven
vetting methods to ensure that those who enter this country are not
threats to the security of the American people.
Extending a hand to help persecuted people in this manner is not a
new idea. In 1989, the late Senator from New Jersey, Frank Lautenberg,
crafted what has been called the Lautenberg amendment, which granted P-
2 priority status to Soviet Jewry, Vietnamese nationals, and other
religious minorities seeking refuge. In 2004, the late Senator from
Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter, expanded the Lautenberg amendment to cover
religious minorities fleeing oppression from the Ayatollahs in Iran. In
2007 the late Senator from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy, passed a bill
that granted priority status to certain Iraqi religious minority
members.
The bill I am introducing today follows this bipartisan tradition of
the Senate and our country. Among the first Americans were Pilgrims
from religious persecution in the Old World. That is one reason we have
a long tradition of defending religious minorities here and around the
world.
In the coming weeks, I will discuss this bill with my fellow
Senators. My hope is, it will pass and pass soon because each day will
bring another Christian child who is tortured, another minister
crucified, and another girl raped. Faith communities in the Middle East
are slowly being strangled out of existence.
We are coming upon Easter, the day of Christ's resurrection. The
message of Easter is one for all of humanity; that in times of pain and
suffering, trial and tribulation, there can ultimately be salvation,
there can ultimately be triumph over death.
I try to keep this message in mind, particularly amidst these times
when religious conflict and oppression do not seem to be waning but
waxing. Today Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the
world. Other religions are not far behind in the scope and depth of the
oppression they face. While the United States cannot save all those
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who are suffering from religious persecution, when the persecutors are
rabid terrorists who want to kill Americans and we have the means not
only to defeat those terrorists but to also protect the innocent, we
ought to act. Certainly we have an obligation to stop the unintentional
discrimination in our own refugee process that unfairly blocks
Christians and other religious minorities from seeking safety in the
United States.
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