[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 92 (Tuesday, June 5, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2983-S2985]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Refugee Crisis
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, history is a great teacher, if you learn
your history. The history of the United States, when it comes to
refugees, is a checkered history.
Back during World War II, there were people who came to the borders
of the United States and begged for our mercy, begged for our help.
Nine hundred of them were on a ship called the SS St. Louis. They were
Jews who came from Europe seeking refuge in the United States from the
Nazis. Sadly, the United States turned them away. Several hundred of
them were forced back to Europe and died in the Holocaust. On the floor
of this U.S. Senate, a Democratic Senator from New York,
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Robert Wagner, offered a measure to allow 10,000 Jewish children to
come to the United States during World War II and escape the
possibility of imprisonment and death during World War II in the
Holocaust. That measure was defeated on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
Those children were denied refuge in the United States.
Toward the end of the war, things started changing. Our policies
became more open. We started accepting more people, but the record had
been written. During the darkest days of World War II, the United
States virtually closed its borders to those who were trying to escape
Nazi terror.
After World War II, we decided we were wrong, that we had made a
mistake, and that the United States would demonstrate to the world that
we did care about those who came to the United States as refugees and
those who came from other countries seeking asylum. We wrote an amazing
history after World War II. When you think of the many different
nations that turned to us when they faced the worst circumstances
imaginable, you think about what happened in the United States.
The Cuban population escaping communism in Cuba, where did they come?
They came here, and you can still find them. You can find them all over
the United States but especially in Florida, near Miami, in New
Jersey--but everywhere. The Cuban Americans have made an amazing
contribution to this country. They came as refugees, but they became
real Americans. In fact, they love this country so much so that I
believe three of our Members of the U.S. Senate are Cuban Americans
today.
That is quite a story, but it is not the only story about refugees
coming to this country. You could add to that litany of people who came
the Vietnamese after the end of the war in Vietnam, the Soviet Jews who
escaped persecution in Russia to come to the United States, and the
list is long. It includes refugees from all over the world who came to
this country.
Now, we don't just open our doors and say: Walk in and make yourself
at home. We ask questions. We do background checks. We do everything we
can to be sure the person coming is the person they say they are and
that they will be safe for the United States.
Over the years, the number of refugees we accepted on an annual basis
went up to 80,000 and 100,000, and the United States developed an
international reputation--a reputation for caring for people who were
in the worst circumstances who came here looking for refuge. I run into
refugees, their families, their children, and their grandchildren every
single day. They have made a great contribution to our country, and we
have made a great model for the world when it comes to accepting people
who are in the worst, most terrifying circumstances.
That is about to change. We are in the process now of facing the
worst refugee crisis in the history of the world in so many different
places, and the United States, instead of maintaining this image and
this model of accepting refugees from other countries, under President
Donald Trump, has decided to do just the opposite. It would cut in half
the number of refugees we would clear, review, interrogate, and accept
in the United States each year to 45,000, which is the official number,
but in actuality only about 14,000 have been accepted so far in the few
months of this year. It is an indication we will not even reach 45,000.
There is something going on as well when it comes to those who seek
asylum or refuge in this country that is equally horrifying and
objectionable. The Trump administration has decided to discourage those
who would come to our borders looking for safety by telling mothers who
bring their infants and children that those children will be taken away
from them by the Government of the United States when they arrive at
our border. It is hard to imagine, but that is the stated policy now of
the Trump administration. It is a cruel policy. It is not a policy
consistent with American values.
Since our Nation's tragic failure during World War II to help Jewish
refugees fleeing Adolph Hitler, generations of Americans have tried to
set an example for the world by providing a safe haven to the world's
most vulnerable people. Now we face the worst refugee crisis in the
history of the world, with more than 65 million people around the world
displaced from their homes, but the Trump administration is admitting
the fewest refugees since World War II and going to extreme lengths to
prevent victims of war and terrorism from seeking asylum in the United
States.
So far this year, about 15,000 unaccompanied children have been
apprehended at our southwest border. This is not necessarily a crisis
in a nation of 325 million people, especially at a time when we are
asking friendly nations--our allies in the Middle East--to do much more
in accepting refugees.
The real crisis that gives cause to people showing up at our southern
border asking for asylum can be traced to three countries--Honduras, El
Salvador, and Guatemala--the so-called Northern Triangle. These
countries in Central America have among the highest homicide rates in
the world. Young girls face a constant threat of sexual violence with
little or no protection. That is why families are doing desperate
things, taking extraordinary risks to come to our border and ask for
protection. Is there any parent who would not do the same to save their
child?
How has the Trump administration responded to this refugee crisis on
our border? They are trying to discourage families from fleeing to our
borders by separating parents from their children. In March, we learned
in my office in Chicago about a 7-year-old girl and her mother who came
from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I have been there. It is a
land of terrible massacres, barbarism. It is a land of violence. The
Democratic Republic of the Congo had these two, a mother and daughter,
come to our shores. They were separated for 4 months--a 7-year-old girl
from her mother.
I asked the Department of Homeland Security inspector general to
investigate this. Why would we separate a 7-year-old girl from her mom
who is coming from the Congo seeking protection? Well, at the time, the
Trump administration said: We don't separate families. That was the
official statement at the time.
Last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the
separation of children from their parents was a new ``zero tolerance''
approach, and now family separation has become the official policy of
the Government of the United States of America. In just the first 2
weeks of this policy under Attorney General Sessions, 658 children have
been impacted.
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly says separating families is ``a
tough deterrent'' to parents who are fleeing persecution, and he
dismissed any concerns because ``the children will be taken care of--
put into foster care or whatever.''
Well, our Nation's leading medical experts disagree. The American
Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association have
condemned this official policy of the Trump administration separating
families in immigration detention. Here is what the President of the
American Academy of Pediatrics said:
Separating children from their parents contradicts
everything we stand for as pediatricians--protecting and
promoting children's health. In fact, highly stressful
experiences, like family separation, can cause irreparable
harm, disrupting a child's brain architecture and affecting
his or her short- and long-term health. This type of
prolonged exposure to serious stress--known as toxic stress--
can carry lifelong consequences for these children.
The Trump administration has been taking some heat, deservedly, for
separating families. In typical fashion--no surprise--they have decided
the real cause of the problem would be the Democrats. Just this
morning, President Trump tweeted: ``Separating families at the Border
is the fault of bad legislation passed by the Democrats,'' but the law
he is talking about wasn't passed by the Democrats. It is the
bipartisan Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which
was passed by unanimous consent in the Senate and was signed into law
by Republican President George W. Bush. President Trump has his facts
wrong again.
This law has nothing to do with the separation of families. Instead,
it ensures the United States meets its international obligations to
protect unaccompanied children seeking safe haven in our country. It
was a response to concerns by Republicans and Democrats that children
apprehended by the
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Border Patrol were being returned to countries where they might be
further persecuted or killed.
Under this law, unaccompanied children from the Northern Triangle
countries I mentioned earlier are transferred to the Department of
Health and Human Services and placed in deportation proceedings, giving
them a chance to make their case to a judge as to why they are seeking
protection in America.
Consider ``Samuel'' and ``Amelie,'' who are siblings, ages 3 and 6,
from Honduras. They are 3 and 6. When they arrived in the United
States, they were traumatized and refused to speak. After months of
counseling, Amelie revealed that both children had been raped by drug
cartel members. Without the protection of this law which the President
condemned this morning, these children would have been returned to
Honduras and almost certain exploitation or death.
Two weeks ago, there was a hearing on unaccompanied children in the
Senate Immigration Subcommittee which I serve on as a ranking member.
We examined the administration's claim that the law the President
objects to is being exploited by gangs. Here is what we learned:
Unaccompanied children undergo multiple screenings and background
checks when they present themselves at the border, and the law gives
the government the authority to place any unaccompanied child in a
secure facility if there is any notion of a threat. Since the year
2012, 6 years ago, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has processed
more than 250,000 unaccompanied children. Of those, how many were
confirmed or suspected of affiliation with the MS-13 gang that the
President talks about nonstop? Sixty. It was 60 out of 250,000--60 over
6 years, which is 10 a year, fewer than 1 a month. The President says
we have to separate these kids because of drug gang worries. I don't
want a single member of any gang anywhere admitted into this country,
period. For goodness' sake, 250,000 children and 60 over a 6-year
period were confirmed or suspected of affiliation with MS-13? Instead
of stoking fears, we should focus on preventing unaccompanied children
from being recruited by gangs.
Sadly, the Trump administration's budget is slashing funding for the
Office of Refugee Resettlement, the government agency that is
responsible for these important gang prevention efforts.
At our hearing, we also discussed the conditions in the Northern
Triangle countries in Central America that are driving families to flee
to our border. If people were migrating because of the so-called legal
loopholes, which we hear so often about from this administration, they
wouldn't be just coming from three countries; they would be coming from
all over the region, but we learned more than 90 percent of the
unaccompanied kids referred to the Department of Health and Human
Services are from three nations--the three of the Northern Triangle.
Instead of addressing the root causes that are driving migration from
these countries, the Trump administration is making the situation on
the ground worse. The administration's budget request for the region
would slash aid by more than one-third, and the administration is
terminating the temporary protected status for two of these countries--
El Salvador and Honduras, forcing many people to return to them even
though these countries are clearly unstable.
Last year, the administration also ended the Central American Minors
Program, which permitted children from the Northern Triangle to apply
for refugee resettlement from their home country. We said to mothers
with their babies and their infants: Don't make this dangerous journey.
If you are in danger in your home country and want to seek asylum or
refuge in the United States, make the application from where you are
before you have to make that journey. Unfortunately, that came to an
end with the administration's request to stop the program.
There are many issues to come before the American people but few that
have stoked emotions more than this issue. The notion that the United
States of America--over 300 million good and caring people--would make
it an official policy to separate these infants and toddlers and
children from their mothers and fathers is not American. It is extreme,
it is mean, and it is cruel. Sadly, it is the official policy--the so-
called zero-tolerance policy that has been announced by Attorney
General Sessions.
We learned a bitter lesson back in World War II. We ignored the
realities of human suffering. People across the world asked: What is
going on in America? What are their values? After that war, we tried to
make it clear what we do stand for, the things that are clearly
important, and now this administration has decided we can no longer
afford to do that. We have to separate children from their mothers,
separate them by thousands of miles, put them into foster care, remove
them from their mothers, even if that parent qualifies for protection
here in the United States under our laws of asylum.
This is a sad and cruel policy. I hope Americans across the board
will stand up and speak up. We are a better Nation than this.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.