Schumer Floor Remarks on President Trump’s Executive Order on Refugees and the Administration’s Move to Install Steve Bannon to the National Security Council
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today delivered remarks outlining the need to rescind President Trump’s executive order halting refugees from entering the U.S. as well as the troubling decision by the Administration to install a place on the National Security Council’s key panel for White House Senior Advisor Steve Bannon. Below are his remarks:
Mr. President, I rise this afternoon, like much of America, angry and perturbed…but resolute in 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, and 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 the most in the fight against terrorism.
As my friend Republican Senator John McCain has 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. This rule would have nothing to do with that.
And as both Senators McCain and Graham expressed yesterday, this order may be used as a valuable propaganda tool for ISIS– which wants nothing more than to paint the United States as a country at war with Islam.
This order feeds right into the perception ISIS and other extremists want to create.
The bottom line is that this 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 the utter chaos and confusion in our airports over the weekend that resulted.
The people who were in charge of implementing it weren't even told about it.
Folks were caught in detention at airports around the country for up to 12 hours…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're looking into that right now.
It raises serious doubts about the competence 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 importantly of all, the order should be reversed because it is un-American.
We are a nation founded by the descendants of asylum seekers. We are a nation that has been constantly invigorated and replenished and driven forward by immigrants, many millions of whom came under duress, seeking a new birth of freedom here in America. This ability to find refuge from persecution—whether based on one’s religion or race or political views—goes to the very foundation of this country – starting with the Pilgrims and Plymouth Rock.
This 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 that they are not the face of terrorism, they are families just like ours.
Yesterday, I met Mr. Hameed, who is an Iraqi refugee. He worked at a local university’s department of English literature and because chose to use his language skills to help American soldiers in Iraq. He worked as a translator for the U.S. Army in Iraq for TEN years. After enduring years of death threats and harassment to him and his family, he began the refugee process over two years ago and arrived here in America just a few weeks ago, on January 5th.
If Donald Trump had been inaugurated on January 1st and enacted his order just six weeks sooner, Mr. Hameed would have had to stay in Iraq. His life would have been threatened for cooperating with our military.
What kind of message does this send to the untold millions of people just like Mr. Hameed throughout the Muslim world who, today, are less likely to work the United States?
And I met the Elias family with their four children, who arrived here just a little over a month ago. Their journey to the United States began five 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 some of their family in the Bronx. In fact, the driving force that brought them here were two American citizens – their grandparents – who came in 1970 and are now model Americans: running a small business, creating jobs, and being proud and loyal citizens.
I enjoyed talking to them. Mr. Elias started out as a tailor, but then he became an entrepreneur like so many immigrants, and he started a small business. He now refurbishes the interiors of boats, mainly on City Island in the Bronx. I have been there. It's a beautiful place. Well, he wanted to bring his people, his kids here and grandchildren because their lives were threatened. They came, again, a month ago.
Their young son told me he wanted to grow up to be a policeman. Their young daughter wants to be a doctor.
This 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.
And my guess is, if the President 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.
So Mr. President, I urge my Republican colleagues to help us overturn this wrongheaded, counter-productive, dangerous and un-American executive order.
So many of them know it’s wrong. While I understand party loyalty, this order goes so against the American grain that there are higher values at stake.
Eleven of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have expressed reservations. I urge them to back those words up 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'll be happy to look at it and work with Republicans on it, but not something like this.
That’s why, at 5:15 today, I’ll be asking Unanimous Consent to call for a vote on a bill offered by Senator Feinstein, the ranking Democrat of the Judiciary Committee, to overturn the order. I hope our Republican colleagues will join us.
Mr. President, proponents of this order believe that it shows strength. I believe it shows the opposite. Let me explain why.
My middle name is “Ellis,” 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 A nation whose might comes not only from its military, but also from its morality.
Whose leadership is demonstrated, not by projecting a fear of outsiders, but by inspiring in them a hope for a better life here in America.
Whose strength comes from its values – chief among them a commitment to that golden door…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 – of religious freedom, tolerance and decency.
Our greatest weapon will always be our values. That’s what makes us strong. They are a new colossus, as Emma Lazarus called it.
Mr. President, the only way we will lose the war against terrorism is if we lose ourselves. If we retreat from our values.
And not only will this executive order embolden and inspire those around the globe who would 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.
Now, Mr. President, on another matter. 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 the National Intelligence Agency and install a permanent seat for White House Political Advisor 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 advisors who made their careers promoting a white-nationalist website. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the President’s primary military advisor 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 and endangers national security. And it is certainly contrary to the spirit and intent of the National Security Act.
This morning, General Michael Hayden, who has served in top intelligence posts in the Clinton, Bush and Obama Administrations – hardly a partisan -- said that the move “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’s 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’s going to have real trouble.
It’s one thing when it comes to a dustup over the size of the inauguration crowd; it’s an entirely different story when it’s the most sensitive activities undertaken by our nation’s government.
Mr. President, much like the Muslim ban, this decision was poorly thought out and ill-conceived. It’s put a filter on the information going to the President, and it also may make us less safe.