[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19573-19574]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                REFUGEES

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, there is also a question about what we 
can do to keep our country safe in terms of people coming into our 
country.
  Each year we admit about 70,000 refugees from all over the world. The 
No. 1 country providing refugees to the United States--Burma. Most 
people wouldn't have guessed that. About one-fourth of our refugees 
come from Burma.
  How do they get into the United States as refugees? They are first 
identified by the United Nations Council on Refugees, and then they 
start a process, a background check and process. This goes on for 18 
months to 24 months. It involves repetitive fingerprinting and 
checking, interviews, examinations, questions. Then, finally, after 24 
months, they may be allowed to come to the United States as a refugee. 
About 70,000 a year come into our country. I have met a lot of them. 
They are from all over the world--Africa, Asia, all over the world. And 
now we have a focus on them, a laserlike focus on them.
  Some are arguing that the way to keep America safe is to stop 
refugees from coming in from Syria. Well, we know Syria has been 
engaged in a civil war for more than 4 years. We know some 4 million 
people have been displaced. I was in Greece a few weeks back and saw 
numbers coming across the Aegean Sea from Turkey into Greece. These 
Syrian and some Iraqi refugees are desperate people. You literally see 
a family walking--mother, father, carrying babies, walking toddlers--
with all that they own on their backs. That is it. We stopped to talk 
to some of them, and they told the story of what it was like to live in 
Syria amidst a civil war, what it was like to have barrel bombs going 
off in your town--the damage that it did, the killing that it did. Many 
of them had lost members of their families. They were running away from 
that violence--not only from Assad, the head of Syria, but from ISIL as 
well.
  Some of them decide to ask to become refugees in the United States. 
They know that if they ask, they are in for a long, long haul--18 to 24 
months. Some have made it, fewer than 2,000, during the last 4 years. 
Some have made it. Not a single Syrian refugee coming into the United 
States since this war began has ever been charged with terrorism. It 
just hasn't happened.
  What happens with other visitors to the United States? Well, we 
welcome visitors. Certainly we do. Many of us look forward to visiting 
their countries too. About 55 million foreign travelers come to the 
United States each year; about 20 million are from visa waiver 
countries--38 countries where we have a special relationship and say: 
You don't need a specific visa to come to our country because we have 
this agreement between us; you may freely travel to the United States 
on what we call a visa waiver. That is about 20 million of the 55 
million.
  We can do better when it comes to these visitors on both sides--
Americans traveling overseas and foreigners coming into this country. 
We need to make sure that before a person gets on a plane, we check 
their fingerprints, for example. That is a pretty easy thing to do 
these days. Just put your hands down; it reads them and cross-checks 
against the data bank of suspected people, suspected criminals, and 
suspected terrorists. Obviously, the overwhelming majority of people 
will have no problem whatsoever, but it is a way, just like taking off 
your shoes, to make sure that we are safer. It is a little inconvenient 
but worth it.
  What we have said on the Democratic side is that if you want to make 
America safe--and we all do--it is far better to focus on foreign 
travelers and visa waivers, and make sure we are doing the proper 
checks before the person gets on the airplane. I believe we should do 
that. When I travel to their countries, I am prepared to face the same 
fingerprint check. It is not too much to ask in the 21st century, with 
the terrorism and violence that we face.
  All these things will make us safer, but focusing on 70,000 refugees, 
among which a few hundred are Syrian, instead of looking at the larger 
group of 55 million foreign travelers--did you know that most of the 
terrorists in Paris, France, were carrying European passports which 
would have allowed them to come to the United States without a visa? So 
if we want to make our country safer--and I do--let's do things that 
are practical and thoughtful.
  Incidentally, those who come to the United States on visa waivers 
from 38 countries around the world can currently legally buy firearms. 
What is that all about? Our law prevents foreign visitors who come in 
on a visa from buying firearms, but a loophole allows those who qualify 
under the Visa Waiver Program to come as visitors to buy a firearm. I 
think we can do better there as well.
  Let's tighten up the Visa Waiver Program, and make sure we do the 
proper checks so dangerous people don't ever get on the plane to come 
to the United States. Let's make sure as well that if you have a visa 
waiver and you come

[[Page 19574]]

to the United States as a visitor, you are not going to be purchasing 
firearms. Finally, if you are on a suspected terrorist no-fly list, you 
should be disqualified from buying a gun or an explosive, period. Those 
are three practical steps. I think we ought to move forward and do that 
on a bipartisan basis. It will be something to keep in mind and make 
America much safer.
  In closing, some of the suggestions being made as these Republican 
Presidential candidates try to out-trump one another are very sad. They 
reflect the ignorance of history and a willingness to ignore the values 
of this country. When I hear some of the awful things being said about 
people of the Islamic faith--I think about a dinner I went to Saturday 
night. It was in Chicago; it was by the Children's Heart Research 
Foundation. They were saluting a number of doctors in the Chicago area 
who were extraordinary in saving the lives of children. One of them is 
a current surgeon. He started with Children's Memorial Hospital; he is 
now with the Advocate hospital system. He is considered to be the best 
in Chicago. If your baby--and 1 out of 100 are--is born with a 
congenital heart defect, this is the doctor you want to see the child; 
this is the surgeon you want to save your child's life. This doctor is 
a Muslim. He is an American. He is an important part of America. Those 
who are making negative statements about all people in the Islamic 
faith, calling for registration or exclusion or whatever it may be--
their statements and views are not consistent with who we are as 
Americans. The President said as much last night, and I agree.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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