[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 180 (Monday, November 6, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H8511-H8512]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            DIVERSITY VISAS

  (Mr. PAYNE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1

[[Page H8512]]

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, as Americans, we mourn for the lives lost in 
the act of terrorism in New York last week. But New Yorkers are 
resilient. Violence will never break their spirit, and in the Northeast 
corridor, business has continued as usual.
  Sadly, there are folks who want to use last week's terrorist attack 
for their cynical political reasons. They don't want to treat the root 
causes of extremism, whether based on racial resentment, twisted 
interpretations of religion, or political ideology. They do want to 
stoke fear in order to advance an anti-immigrant agenda, and they are 
trying to blame the Diversity Visa program for the violence.
  Americans are smarter than that.
  The Diversity Visa program strengthens the Nation by allowing people 
from places like Africa and the Caribbean to lawfully immigrate to the 
United States, where they help fill major shortages in the workforce 
and drive positive changes in their communities. We need them, and they 
need us.
  Let's not sacrifice our national principles because of a trumped up 
fear of immigrants.

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