[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 17 (Wednesday, February 1, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S556-S557]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Travel Ban

  Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I rise to speak on a special day. Today is 
my wife's birthday. Today is National Freedom Day, when we recognize 
President Lincoln's signing the 13th Amendment banning slavery. This is 
the reason we celebrate Black History Month in February.
  Today, February 1, begins American Heart Month, acknowledging the 
great heart of the American people, as well as the need for health 
care.
  But today, February 1, is also the first day of World Interfaith 
Harmony Week. In 2010, King Abdallah II of Jordan spoke before the U.N. 
General Assembly, and he asked the U.N. to declare a week every year to 
promote understanding and tolerance between the world's religions. In 
his speech before the U.N., this is what King Abdallah said:

       It is also essential to resist forces of division that 
     spread misunderstanding and mistrust, especially among 
     peoples of different religions. The fact is, humanity 
     everywhere is bound together, not only by mutual interests, 
     but by shared commandments to love God and neighbor, to love 
     the good and neighbor. What we are proposing is a special 
     week, during which the world's people, in their own places of 
     worship, could express the teachings of their own faith about 
     tolerance, respect for others and peace.

  The resolution was adopted unanimously at the U.N. General Assembly, 
and all nations, religions, and peoples were asked to observe it.
  By happy coincidence, as the Presiding Officer knows, King Abdallah 
is in Washington right now. He visited with Senators here at the 
Capitol yesterday and today. Earlier today I met with him, and I told 
him I would speak in his honor in the hopes that his words might 
inspire us at a challenging time.
  The word of last Friday's Executive orders regarding immigration and 
refugees--orders which implemented the President's campaign rhetoric to 
implement a Muslim ban--shocked the country this weekend. I traveled to 
Roanoke and Blacksburg, VA--communities in the southwestern portion of 
my Commonwealth. I was there to meet with local health care providers 
and students pursuing health care careers. I had planned the trip to go 
talk about the Affordable Care Act, but at my first event, two families 
came to me with a concern. Working together with Roanoke Catholic 
charities, they had helped settle a Syrian refugee family in Blacksburg 
1 year ago. The Syrian family was a mom and dad and four kids. These 
sponsors told me how well the family was doing and how welcoming this 
community was in bringing this family to Virginia and taking them in.
  The employer of the Syrian father runs a construction company, and he 
hired him to do construction work. He told me, kind of chuckling about 
it: Senator, not all my workers agree with me on politics, but no one 
better say a

[[Page S557]]

bad word about their Syrian coworker around them.
  He went on to describe how the employees at his construction firm had 
done a number of things, including collecting funds to help the 
children have soccer shoes there, in Southwest Virginia. But they 
didn't tell me this story because it is a happy story about 
resettlement of a family, although that is a point of the story.
  Here is why they came to see me. The community was poised to welcome 
a second family from Syria--a mother, father, and five minor children--
to meet them at the Roanoke airport tomorrow and help them find a home 
in the United States. This refugee family they were supposed to meet 
tomorrow fled Syria 4 years ago. They had been living in a refugee camp 
in Jordan, undergoing 4 years of vetting in the hopes they could come 
to America. Now, their sponsors pressed papers into my hand and said: 
What will happen to this family? Are they now shut out of the dream 
they have worked so hard to achieve? Are we now shut out from our 
desire to offer them the Christian hospitality of our community?
  We have been working to get answers to these questions, but as of 
today, we know nothing about this family's fate.
  There are so many questions I struggle to answer in the aftermath of 
these orders. The orders single out people based on their Muslim faith 
by targeting primarily Muslim nations and allowing exceptions to be 
made for Christians and other religious minorities. Why?
  The orders single out seven countries--countries where citizens have 
been exposed to genocide and other crimes against humanity--while 
leaving countries that have actually exported terrorists to the United 
States untouched. Why?
  The order was applied to legal permanent residents of the United 
States until clarified and also to brave people who had helped American 
soldiers on the battlefield, thereby earning a special immigrant visa 
status. Why?
  We can have security procedures that are based on the danger of an 
individual rather than a stereotype about where they were born or how 
they worship.
  I am called to reflect on these events by King Abdallah's words 
suggesting that the world should recognize this week as World 
Interfaith Harmony Week. He told us today that the order is being 
viewed with deep anxiety in his country, which is one of our strongest 
allies in the Arab world--indeed, in the entire world. I am called to 
reflect on these events by my own citizens in Roanoke and Blacksburg, 
working with a church group, who just want to serve others in a way 
commanded by their faith and by all faiths.
  At the Presiding Officer's desk, there is a book of the rules of the 
Senate and there is also a Bible. In a week where all are called to 
reflect upon their own religious traditions of tolerance and peace, 
there is wisdom in that Book for our Nation.
  Exodus 22:21: ``You shall not wrong or oppress an alien, for you were 
aliens in the land of Egypt.''
  Leviticus 19:34: ``The alien who resides with you shall be to you as 
a citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself for you were 
aliens in the land of Egypt.
  Deuteronomy 1:16: ``Give the members of your community a fair hearing 
and judge rightly between one person and another whether citizen or 
resident alien.''
  Deuteronomy 10:18-19: ``For the Lord your God loves the strangers, 
providing them with food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger 
for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.''
  Deuteronomy 24:17: ``You shall not deprive a resident alien or an 
orphan of justice.''
  Deuteronomy 26:5: ``A wandering Aramaean was my ancestor, he went 
down into Egypt and lived there as an alien.''
  Matthew 2:13-23: Jesus began his life as a refugee in Egypt.
  Matthew 25:34: ``I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you 
gave me drink. I was a stranger and you invited me into your home.''
  The traditions of this nation, other nations, religions, and peoples 
point us in the same direction. Pope Francis reminded us of these very 
words when he spoke to us in the fall of 2015 and told us--as 
individual leaders and as a nation--that the yardstick we use to 
measure and evaluate others is the yardstick that will be applied to 
us.
  On this opening day of World Interfaith Harmony Week, I pray that we 
commit to peaceful understanding and appreciation of people from 
diverse faith backgrounds. I pray that the unjust immigration orders 
that target suffering people based on where they were born or how they 
worship will be rescinded. I pray that Congress and the administration 
will work together to set up appropriate security procedures that do 
not discriminate on the grounds of religion or national origin, and I 
pray that we will be true to our best principles and not sacrifice them 
for the sake of politics.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lee). The Senator from Colorado.