[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3155-3157]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               DECLARATION OF GENOCIDE COMMITTED BY ISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Gohmert) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, it is always an honor to be able to speak 
on this hallowed floor.
  A report was made earlier today entitled, ``House Poised to Declare 
ISIS Committing Genocide Against Christians, Other Minorities.'' And, 
in fact, this report says: ``The House is poised Monday to approve a 
resolution that declares the Islamic State is committing genocide 
against Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East--
putting even more pressure on the Obama administration to do the same 
ahead of a deadline later this week.
  ``The resolution passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee with 
unanimous support and is expected to pass the House with bipartisan 
backing.
  ``The resolution comes to a vote Monday evening, just days after the 
release of a graphic new report by the Knights of Columbus and In 
Defense of Christians on ISIS atrocities. The report made the case that 
the terror campaign against Christians and other minorities in Syria, 
Iraq, and other parts of the Middle East is, in fact, genocide.
  ```When ISIS systematically targets Christians, Yazidis, and other 
ethnic and religious minorities for extermination, this is not only a 
grave injustice--it is a threat to civilization itself,' Representative 
Jeff Fortenberry, Republican, Nebraska, said in a statement. `We must 
call the violence by its proper name: genocide.'
  ``The resolution will be voted on ahead of the congressionally 
mandated March 17 deadline for the Secretary of State John Kerry and 
the White House to make a decision on whether to make such a 
declaration. The measure is an effort to force the administration's 
hand on the issue, as the administration has so far declined to take an 
official position.
  ```Christians, Yazidis, and other beleaguered minority groups can 
find new hope in this transpartisan, ecumenical alliance against ISIS' 
barbaric onslaught,' Fortenberry, who is co-chairman of the Religious 
Minorities of the Middle East Caucus and represents America's largest 
Yazidi community, said in the statement.''
  So the measure received the backing of the House Republican 
leadership, Paul Ryan, calling on the Obama administration to take 
action like recent attacks against Christians.
  The article goes on, from foxnews.com, indicating: ``It is rare for 
Congress to make a genocide determination. In addition to the genocide 
resolution, the House is expected to vote on a measure to create an 
international tribunal to try ISIS members accused of atrocities.''
  Mr. Speaker, it is pleasing to report that H. Con. Res. 75, 
expressing the sense of Congress that the atrocities perpetrated by 
ISIL--that is, the Islamic State; and it has used different names, 
ISIS, ISIL--against religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria 
include war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, that passed 
by 393 yeas and zero nays.
  It is deeply troubling that although this House, in a bipartisan way, 
could vote 393 for this resolution and zero against, that Secretary of 
State John Kerry and President Barack Obama are having trouble deciding 
what they should do.
  Gee, is it possible they might just notice that in the House of 
Representatives we came together unanimously and said what ISIS has 
been doing is genocide?
  For heaven's sake, for the sake of the Christians, the Yazidis, the 
Jews in the area, is it too much to ask that this United States 
administration take notice that there is a genocide going on?
  And though the administration is not doing much of anything about it, 
is it too much to ask that this administration at least call it what it 
is; that this House, on both sides of the aisle, unanimously said the 
same thing?
  Is it too much to ask, even if you are not going to fight the 
genocide, at

[[Page 3156]]

least call it what it is, then that will embolden others with courage 
to stand up and fight more fearlessly? Is that too much to ask?
  I hope and pray not, Mr. Speaker.
  In the meantime, what we find here at home, while we are still having 
the administration struggle over whether to call genocide genocide, we 
have a report from ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, 
it is revealed that 124 illegal immigrant criminals released from jail 
by the Obama administration since 2010 have been subsequently charged 
with murder.
  The Center for Immigration Studies report on the data from ICE to the 
Senate Judiciary Committee added that the committee is not releasing 
the names of these masses of murder suspects.
  ```The criminal aliens released by ICE in these years--who had 
already been convicted of thousands of crimes--are responsible for a 
significant crime spree in American communities, including 124 new 
homicides after the thousands of crimes they have already committed 
before ICE released them. Inexplicably, ICE is choosing to release some 
criminal aliens multiple times,' said the report written by CIS' 
respected Director of Policy Studies, Jessica M. Vaughan.
  ``She added that 75 percent were released due to court orders or 
because their countries wouldn't take them back.
  ``What's more, her report said that in 2014, ICE released 30,558 
criminal aliens''--that is illegal immigrants in the United States who 
committed criminal atrocities--``who had been convicted already when 
they were released of 92,347 crimes.''
  Wow. As the world suffers, as this administration cannot determine 
whether or not to call the genocide of Christians and other minority 
groups genocide; at the same time, it has been hard at work, out of 
those thousands, tens of thousands of aliens who have committed over 
92,000 criminal acts against Americans here in this country, the 
administration has been hard at work and deported 3 percent of the tens 
of thousands of aliens illegally here who have committed over 92,000 
crimes, and this administration has deported 3 percent.

                              {time}  2130

  So much for protecting Americans against all enemies foreign and 
domestic.
  This article from Paul Bedard says: ``Her analysis is the latest 
shocking review of Obama's open-border immigration policy. And despite 
the high number of illegal immigrants charged with murder, the list 
doesn't include those released by over 300 so-called `sanctuary cities' 
and those ICE declined to even take into custody.
  ``She said that 124 criminal aliens released by ICE between 2010 and 
2015 were charged with murder during that period and `associated with 
250 different communities in the United States, with the most clustered 
in California, New York, and Texas.'''
  I would assert parenthetically, Mr. Speaker, for those that are not 
California, New York, and Texas, you cannot think for a minute that 
this is not already in your State. If you haven't heard about, it is 
coming.
  This says: ``In a memo about the subsequent crimes of released 
illegals to Judiciary Committee Chairman Senator Chuck Grassley, ICE 
said, `The aliens were charged with a total of 135 homicide-related 
crimes subsequent'''--for my liberal friends, that means after--```to 
release from ICE custody. As of July 25, 2015, a total of 39 
convictions have resulted from these homicide-related charges. Of the 
121 total aliens, 2 had homicide-related convictions prior to release 
from ICE custody.'''
  ICE released them knowing that they already had homicide-related 
convictions, and they were released to kill again upon the American 
public. Though they violated our laws to get here and they violate our 
laws to stay here, this administration has seen to their release upon 
the American public further.
  ``Vaughan added that `ICE reported that there are 156 criminal aliens 
who were released at least twice by ICE since 2013. Between them, these 
criminals had 1,776 convictions'''--that kind of sounds patriotic. 
Since 2013, ICE has released 1,776 criminals with 1,776 convictions 
before they are released in 2013, including burglary, larceny, you 
know, those things that hurt America.
  This article from cis.org also says: ``Only a tiny percentage of the 
released criminals have been removed--most receive the most generous 
forms of due process available and are allowed to remain at large, 
without supervision, while they await drawn-out immigration hearings. 
They are permitted to take advantage of this inefficient processing 
even though they are more likely to re-offend than they are to be 
granted legal status.''
  Further down it says: ``Some aliens had multiple ZIP Codes associated 
with them in ICE's system, so the records include more ZIP Codes than 
the 121 individual criminal aliens charged''--with murder--``through 
2014. Three more were charged in 2015; ICE did not provide their ZIP 
Codes . . . ICE reported there are 156 criminal aliens who were 
released at least twice by ICE since 2013.''
  That, of course, was in the other article.
  It goes on to say: ``ICE has previously disclosed that 75 percent of 
the homicidal criminal aliens were released due to court orders.''
  Most of those would be immigration judges who sit at the discretion 
of the Attorney General of the United States. So perhaps people can let 
our Attorney General know that they would like our Attorney General to 
pick some immigration judges who might actually enforce our law instead 
of forgo the law so criminal aliens can commit more crimes against 
Americans.
  I know, I understand there is so much going on, it is difficult to 
deal with all these issues at the same time, and that is why the 
administration is struggling so whether or not to officially say that 
the genocide going on in the Middle East of Christians and other 
minorities is actually genocide. It is just taking so much brain power. 
Even though in here it was 393-0, the administration right down on 
Pennsylvania Avenue here just can't decide if it really might be 
genocide or not.
  ``In a separate communication, ICE provided a list of the countries 
that currently are uncooperative in accepting their deported citizens: 
Afghanistan, Algeria, Burundi, Cape Verde, China, Cuba, Eritrea, 
Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, India, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Libya, 
Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, and 
Zimbabwe.''
  Gee, Cuba?
  It is a real shame that as this administration negotiated all the 
things that it was going to give to and do for Cuba that they didn't 
apparently bring this issue up: Oh, by the way, the criminal aliens 
that you have had come into our country are coming back to your country 
because they are your citizens illegally in our country. They are 
coming back to you, like it or not.
  Apparently, I guess maybe with all the concentration on whether 
genocide is genocide, they weren't able to remember to bring that up to 
Cuba or to China.
  In Afghanistan, one of my Muslim friends who is a great leader there 
in Afghanistan pointed out a few years ago when he was talking about 
the leverage that the United States has and should use to get 
Afghanistan to do the right thing by its people and by the United 
States, I said: Well, why do you think--this was in a visit in 
Afghanistan. I said: Why do you think we have much leverage? This is a 
few years ago. He said: Do you know what our annual budget is for the 
government in Afghanistan? No. I didn't know. He said: Around 12 
billion American dollars. Do you know how much of that the United 
States provides? He said: We provide about 1\1/2\ billion of our 12. 
You provide most of the rest of it. He said: Yes, you have got plenty 
of leverage.
  But, apparently, this administration, maybe again they are so 
flustered in trying to decide if ISIS, who has expressly indicated they 
want to wipe out all Christians and they want to wipe Israel off the 
map, they are trying to

[[Page 3157]]

decide if that means that is really a genocide, so they haven't had 
time to notice that we have massive leverage over the Afghan Government 
to get them to do the right thing and take back their criminal aliens 
that are in this country illegally and send them back and take them; 
otherwise, the 10, 12 of your budget that we provide may not get 
provided anymore.
  But again, I know this administration doesn't want to offend people 
that are killing American citizens. I get that. It is special being 
that sensitive.
  Algeria, China, India, Iran, Mr. Speaker, I just can't help but 
wonder if, before the President authorized $100 billion to $150 billion 
going to Iran, if maybe it occurred in someone's mind: Do you know 
what? I am going to save some American lives by forcing Iran to take 
back the criminal aliens from Iran that are not lawfully here in the 
United States.
  I wonder if anybody in this administration maybe thought about that. 
Did they think about it and send the President the message and it just 
didn't get to the President? Or it didn't get to John Kerry, and they 
didn't think about it on their own: Gee, do you know what? We know Iran 
has already said they are going to spend some of that $100 billion, 
$150 billion on weapons systems on more terror groups like Hamas and 
Hezbollah. Yeah, they have said that we are going to spend more money 
on all these things. We knew that. Did it occur that that is bad enough 
that you are giving money that is going to be used to kill Americans, 
Christians, Jews, Yazidis, it is going to be used to terrorize the 
world? Maybe you could have helped American citizens out by saying: 
And, by the way, before we release it, you are going--and never mind 
that they violated the agreement over and over--but you, Iran, are 
going to need to accept back the criminal aliens from your country that 
are killing and terrorizing Americans in our country illegally.
  Did nobody think of that? It is incredible, just incredible. 
Americans are suffering.
  Then we get this report from cis.org that 61 million immigrants and 
their children, young children, now live in the United States. Now, 
most of those, I think 43 million or so, are here legally. But it is 
worth noting that the number of immigrants and their children grew six 
times faster than our Nation's population between 1970 and 2015.
  From 1970 to 2015, our United States population has grown by 59 
percent. That is a good, healthy growth. In the meantime, the 
percentage of immigration growth, or the number of immigrants in the 
United States--first generation, that is. Most all, everybody here, 
even Native Americans weren't native probably at one time. They have 
come across somewhere. But first-generation immigrants who actually 
immigrated in with children, that number has grown by 353 percent over 
that same period.
  In many States, the increase in the number of immigrants and their 
minor children from 1970 to 2015 has been nothing short of astonishing. 
In Georgia, the population grew 3,058 percent; whereas, before that, it 
grew from 55,000 immigrants to 1.75 million immigrants. That is just in 
Georgia. So the immigrant level grew 20 times faster, 25 times faster, 
than the overall State population.
  So thank God for immigration. Thank God for legal immigration, that 
is. But when we abandon the rule of law and don't give ourselves time 
to welcome legal immigrants into this country and educate them--there 
is a reason that they have to be educated and are supposed to learn our 
language and supposed to learn some history, because there is a 
tremendous amount of responsibility that comes with the right to vote. 
You need to understand how you say what Ben Franklin said was ``a 
republic, Madam, if you can keep it.'' You cannot keep a republic if 
you don't educate people that are coming in and who are foreign to the 
idea of the responsibilities of maintaining a republic. You don't keep 
it. You can't keep it.
  On the wave of that came this editorial from Dan Hannan, a member of 
the European Parliament, dated today. Apparently, he spent part of last 
summer volunteering in a hostel for underage migrants in the south of 
Italy. He talks about the migrants that came in.
  He says: ``I have seen refugee columns before, and they tend to be 
made up disproportionately of women and children. Of the boat people 
landed by the coast guard while I was in Italy, more than 80 percent 
were young men. Young men who, I noticed, took out smartphones when 
they disembarked and looked for Wi-Fi so as to tell their relatives'' 
how good it was.

                              {time}  2145

  He says:
  ``Official policy in Europe is based on a misdiagnosis. The migrants 
are treated as refugees, and there is an implicit assumption that their 
displacement is somehow our fault. In the weirdly narcissistic 
tradition of the Left, the West is simultaneously blamed for having 
intervened in Libya and for not having intervened in Syria. But the 
lads I was working with in Italy were from countries that we never 
bombed--except with aid money.''
  Mr. Speaker, it is time we look seriously at the oath every Member of 
Congress, the Senate, the President, the Vice President, everybody in 
elected Federal office takes. We are supposed to defend this 
Constitution. That means we are to provide for the common defense 
against all enemies, foreign and domestic. It is high time we took that 
more seriously.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

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