[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.