[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 1276-1277]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               TRAVEL BAN

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I rise this afternoon, like much of 
America, angry and perturbed but in resolute opposition to the 
President's Executive order issued on Friday. This Executive order was 
mean-spirited and un-American. It made us less secure. It put our 
troops in the field at increased risk. It was implemented in a way that 
caused chaos and confusion across the country. It must be reversed 
immediately. Let me give three reasons why.
  First, it ought to be reversed because it will not make us safer, as 
the President argues. It will make us less safe.
  The President's Executive order targeted seven Muslim-majority 
countries. Not one terrorist attack has been perpetrated on U.S. soil 
by a refugee from one of these countries--not one. Moreover, it could 
alienate and inflame the communities we need most in the fight against 
terrorism.
  As my friend Republican Senator John McCain noted, it could increase 
the small number of lone wolves, which pose the greatest threat of 
terrorism. Both the San Bernardino and Orlando attacks were done by 
lone wolves, American citizens importuned by the evil ISIS. This rule 
would have nothing to do with that.
  As my friend John McCain has noted, it could increase the small 
number of lone wolves, which pose the greatest threat of terrorism. As 
both Senators McCain and Graham expressed yesterday, this order is a 
valuable propaganda tool for ISIS. We saw that happen today. They 
predicted it yesterday, McCain and Graham. It happened today. They want 
nothing more than to paint the United States as a country at war with 
all of Islam. This order feeds right into the perception ISIS and other 
extremists want to create. The bottom line is, the policy will make us 
less safe, not more safe.
  Second, while there is no way to defend the order, it was poorly 
constructed and even more poorly executed. The order was signed into 
effect without the consultation of the Federal agencies that are 
responsible for enforcing it: the Department of Justice, the Department 
of Homeland Security, or the Department of State, and possibly others.
  People across America saw utter chaos and confusion that resulted in 
our airports over the weekend. The people in charge of implementing it 
weren't even told about it. Folks were caught in detention at airports 
around the country, young children separated from their mothers, 
husbands from their wives, green card holders and legal residents being 
denied the right to see an attorney. Some folks were pressured into 
signing away their permanent legal status. We are looking into that 
right now.
  It raises serious doubts about the competence--the basic competence--
of the new administration when such an important order is so poorly 
vetted and executed, just like some of their Cabinet nominations. Such 
a far-reaching and impactful Executive order should have gotten extreme 
vetting. Instead, it was rushed through without much thought or 
deliberation. I could not disagree more with the intention behind the 
order, but the haphazard and completely incompetent way in which it was 
implemented made matters even worse.
  Third, and most important of all, the order should be reversed 
because it is un-American. We are a nation founded by the descendants 
of asylum seekers, a nation that has been constantly invigorated, 
replenished, and driven forward by immigrants, many millions of whom 
came under duress, seeking a new birth of freedom in America. The 
ability to find refuge from persecution, whether based on one's 
religion or race or political views, goes to the very foundation of the 
country, starting with the Pilgrims and Plymouth Rock. The Executive 
order is antithetical to everything we are about.
  President Trump seems to want people to believe that all immigrants 
are terrorists or criminals, but when you meet immigrants, you see they 
are not the face of terrorism; they are families just like ours. 
Yesterday I met two. They were at my office. Mr. Hameed, an Iraqi 
refugee, worked at a local university department in English literature 
and, because he loved our country and what we were trying to do, he 
chose to use his language skills to be a translator for American 
soldiers in Iraq. He worked as a translator for the U.S. Army in Iraq 
for 10 years. He endured death threats and harassment to himself and to 
his family because he was helping us and our soldiers. So he began the 
refugee process about 2 years ago.
  He arrived on January 5. If Donald Trump had been inaugurated on 
January 1 and enacted his order 6 weeks sooner, Mr. Hameed would have 
had to stay in Iraq. His life would have been threatened for 
cooperating with our military.

[[Page 1277]]

  What kind of message does this send to the untold millions of people 
just like Mr. Hameed throughout the Muslim world who today will be less 
likely to work for and with our great country?
  Then I met the Elias family. They were a different type. They have 
four children. They arrived here a month ago. Their journey to the 
United States began 5 years ago from war-torn Syria. After surviving 
the brutal civil war, where suicide bombs had been blowing up in front 
of their house, they were finally reunited with their family in the 
Bronx. You see, the driving force that brought them here were two 
American citizens, their grandparents. Mr. and Mrs. Elias came in 
around 1970.
  They are model Americans, the Eliases. I met them. I talked to them. 
I enjoyed talking to them. Mr. Elias started out as a tailor, a skill 
that is disappearing. We don't have too many tailors left in America. 
He is an entrepreneur, like so many immigrants, and he started a small 
business. He now refurbishes the interior of boats mainly on City 
Island over there in the Bronx. I have been there. It is a beautiful 
place.
  Well, he wanted to bring his people, his kids and grandchildren, here 
because their lives were threatened. They came again a month ago. I met 
the little boy, a beautiful little boy, a red-headed Syrian refugee.
  I said: What do you want to be when you grow up?
  A policeman.
  I asked the daughter: What do you want to be?
  A doctor.
  The Elias family and their young children are not a threat to 
America; they are the promise of America, the same types of people, Mr. 
President, as your ancestors and mine who came here seeking a better 
life and working so hard for it.
  It is my guess, if President Trump met these refugees, Mr. Hameed and 
the Elias family, he wouldn't be so hard-hearted.
  Our country has a grand and proud tradition of welcoming families 
like these with open arms. America is at her best when she is a safe 
harbor in a world of stormy seas.
  I urge my Republican colleagues to help us overturn this wrongheaded, 
counterproductive, dangerous, and un-American Executive order. So many 
of you know it is wrong. I understand party loyalty. I do. But what 
this order does is go against the grain that there are higher values at 
stake.
  Eleven of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have expressed 
reservations already. I urge them and others to back up their words 
with action. Let's repeal the order, then sit down and thoughtfully and 
carefully construct a better way to keep our country safe from 
terrorism.
  President Obama toughened up vetting. If there is more vetting that 
has to be done, we will be happy to look at it and work with you on it 
but not something like this.
  At 5:15 today, I will be asking unanimous consent to call for a vote 
on a bill offered by my friend from California Senator Feinstein, the 
ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, to overturn the order, and 
I hope our Republican colleagues will join us.
  As proponents of this legislation, we believe it shows strength.
  Proponents of the order say it shows strength, but it is not true; it 
is not true. Let me explain why. My middle name is Ellis; Charles Ellis 
Schumer. I was named after my uncle Ellis, who was named for Ellis 
Island. My daughter's middle name is Emma. We named her for the poet 
Emma Lazarus, whose timeless words adorn the base of the Statue of 
Liberty: ``Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning 
to breathe free.''
  The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of our Nation. Around the world, 
people recognize it, that mighty beacon that I can see from my home in 
Brooklyn, and they know we are a nation whose might comes not only from 
our great military but from our morality, whose leadership--our 
country's leadership is demonstrated not by projecting a fear of 
outsiders but by inspiring them in a hope for a better life here in 
America. Our country is a country whose strength comes from its values, 
and among them is a commitment to be that golden door that Emma Lazarus 
spoke about, a shelter, a commitment to shelter the oppressed and the 
persecuted.
  Just as we faced down and defeated the threat of communism with our 
values--a respect for the rule of law, for equality under the law, for 
free markets and free societies--we must face down the twin threats of 
terrorism and jihadism, not only with military strength, as important 
as that is, but also with our values: religious freedom, tolerance, 
decency.
  Our greatest weapon will always be our values. That is what makes us 
strong. They are ``a new colossus,'' as Emma Lazarus called it over 100 
years ago.
  The only way we will lose the war against terrorism is if we lose 
ourselves and retreat from our values. Not only will this Executive 
order embolden and inspire those around the globe who wish to do us 
harm, it strikes against the very core of America, our values, our 
greatest strength. We are better than this. So I will fight with every 
fiber of my being until this Executive order is gone.


                       National Security Council

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on Friday, the President reshuffled the 
National Security Council to remove permanent postings for the Chairman 
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence 
and installed a permanent seat for White House Political Adviser Steve 
Bannon. It is a disturbing and profound departure from past 
administrations.
  On the most sensitive matters of national security, the President 
should be relying on the informed counsel of members of the military 
and intelligence agencies, not political advisers who made their 
careers promoting a White nationalist Web site.
  The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the President's primary 
military adviser, and his voice, along with that of the Director of 
National Intelligence, are the only independent, apolitical voices. 
President Trump's move to strip them of their seats is baffling. It 
endangers our national security and is contrary to the spirit and 
intent of the National Security Act.
  This morning, Gen. Michael Hayden--I can't think of a more respected 
general and intelligence leader. He has served bipartisanly, the 
Clinton, Bush, Obama administrations. He said that the move--and these 
are his words, not mine, General Hayden's--``puts ideology at the 
center over the professional kind of information that the DNI and the 
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs bring to the party.''
  That is a deeply disturbing thought. It reinforces this 
administration's preference to propagate its own reality, rather than 
grapple with the facts on the ground, and if that continues, America is 
going to have real trouble.
  It is one thing when it comes to a dustup about the size of the 
inauguration crowd; it is an entirely different story when it is the 
most sensitive activities undertaken by our Nation's government.
  Much like the Muslim ban, this decision was poorly thought out and 
ill-conceived. It has put a filter on the information going to the 
President and, like the Executive order, makes us less safe.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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