[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 5999]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     REJECT ATTEMPTS TO FEARMONGER

  (Mr. POLIS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, every day, we wake up and we have a choice of 
how we can look at the world: through the murkiness of fear or through 
the clarity of truth. I challenge you to choose clarity, choose a 
perspective that is grounded in truth and in love.
  Today, President Trump announced the opening of the Victims of 
Immigration Crime Engagement Office, or VOICE, an office that will spew 
propaganda highlighting crimes committed by immigrants as opposed to 
equally harmful crimes committed by nonimmigrants. It is a waste of 
taxpayer money that will manipulate law enforcement data in an attempt 
to play on fears and anxieties.
  I am countering the opening of VOICE with the Saved By American 
Immigrants National Task Force, SAINT. The SAINT task force will 
collect and share stories of the countless immigrants who have saved 
Americans lives through heroic acts.
  I am calling for stories like the story of Maytham Alshadood, a 
Coloradan who grew up in Baghdad. He aspired to be veterinarian and 
began his studies, worked with the American Army as a translator, and 
had to leave because of the increase in violence. He came under a 
special immigrant visa. He started school in America. He is now a 
registered nurse, saving and transforming lives in America every day, 
including those of veterans.
  Let us reject attempts to fearmonger and tear apart American 
families, families that are just like ours, families that are ours.

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