[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 16 (Tuesday, January 31, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H758]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           TRUMP'S MUSLIM BAN

  (Ms. JAYAPAL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Ms. JAYAPAL. Madam Speaker, for hours at Sea-Tac International 
Airport on Saturday, I worked with colleagues from the Port of Seattle, 
the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, the ACLU, and our Governor to 
get people who were being held to be released because of President 
Trump's Muslim ban.
  In the utter chaos, I found a gentleman who had come from Somalia to 
be reunited with his wife. He had all of his legal papers; but, 
instead, he was blindly turned away without any due process. We were 
able to get two other individuals released--one from Yemen and one from 
Sudan--after a brutal and determined effort to literally stop the plane 
that they had been boarded onto in order for them to be deported.
  This wasn't just in Seattle, Madam Speaker. This happened at airports 
across the Nation. Our office has been contacted by dozens of people 
who are absolutely terrified. These are students, legal permanent 
residents, and businesspeople who do not know anymore what their place 
in this country is. Simply put, this is un-American and 
unconstitutional.
  I, myself, immigrated when I was 16 years old, and it took me 19 
years to become a citizen. I am intimately familiar with the barriers 
that people face in our immigration system, and I hope that all of the 
Members of this Chamber will welcome immigrants the way we always have.

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