Refugee Crisis Act
Floor Speech
REFUGEE CRISIS IN IRAQ ACT -- (Senate - July 23, 2007)
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, yesterday's Washington Post included details from a memo by our Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, in which he makes a strong case that we need to do more to make it possible for Iraqis employed by our government to come to the United States.
Ambasador Crocker emphasizes the growing danger facing these Iraqis, who as he states ``work under extremely difficult conditions, and are targets for violence including murder and kidnapping.'' According to the article, Ambassador Crocker has called for establishment of an immigrant visa program for these Iraqi employees.
In fact, Senators Smith, Biden, Hagel, Lieberman, Leahy, Levin, and I have introduced legislation which establishes a program to do precisely what Ambassador Crocker calls for.
Our legislation establishes an immigrant visa program for Iraqis who have worked for or directly with the United States government for at least 1 year. Our Government now provides such special immigrant visas but only for Iraqi and Afghan translators and interpreters. Our bill expands it to include Iraqis in other professions who have been employed by us or who have worked directly with us.
In addition, our legislation creates additional options for Iraqis who are under threat because of their close association with the United States to apply to our refugee resettlement program.
The Senate is obviously divided on the best overall policy to pursue on the war. I thought it was a mistake from the beginning. That is no secret. Some of our colleagues are convinced that continuing the use of military force in Iraq is necessary to protect our national security.
But our divisions on that issue should not obscure the fact that all of us on both sides of the aisle agree that America owes an immense debt of gratitude to these Iraqis, and we have a special responsibility to help them. They have supported our effort, saved American lives, and are clearly at great risk because of it.
David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, recognized this obligation and called for action in a June 12 article in ``The Hill.'' He recalled a Vietnamese friend who did not make it out of Vietnam when the U.S. left, and said, ``There are in Iraq today untold numbers of people like my Vietnamese friend who rushed to our aid when we arrived and have worked with us since. If we abandon them, they may not be so lucky.''
Similarly, in a June 24 op-ed in the Washington Post, Julia Taft called for swift action to assist Iraqis whose lives are in danger because of their work with our government. Ms. Taft served as director of the Interagency Task Force for Indochinese Refugee Resettlement in the Ford Administration and was later Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration. She wrote about an Iraqi couple working for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad who had been kidnapped and executed.
She said:
They are among the most recent of thousands of cases in which Iraqis affiliated with the United States have been forced into hiding, tortured or, often, killed ..... I found myself thinking of this husband and wife last week ..... and struggling with a terrible contradiction. The United States is the world's most generous contributor to refugee relief, and we have always taken the lead on resettling refugees. Yet our country has done the bare minimum to help these Iraqis facing death and exile.
In her call for action, Taft said, ``The administration and Congress cannot waste any more time. Their lack of political will has cost too many people their lives. .....''
In a July 19 op-ed in USA Today, Michael Medved, a conservative Republican who supports the ongoing war effort, and Lanny J. Davis, a liberal Democrat who supports the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, called for swift and bold action to help Iraqi refugees.
They wrote:
One issue should bring together all factions of the ongoing debate, and that is America's moral obligation to open our doors--immediately--to Iraqis who face danger and death because of their assistance to our forces.
They specifically called for action on our legislation, saying:
Last month, a bipartisan group of senators, including Kennedy, who is anti-war, and Lieberman, who supports the war, introduced legislation that would provide special refugee status for Iraqis who are in danger because of their association with the United States or its contractors. This legislation, or something like it, needs strong support from the administration as well as from citizens across ideological and partisan lines. ..... days, even hours, could mean the difference between life and death for people who did nothing wrong other than help Americans.
Many Iraqis have been working with our Armed Forces, our diplomatic mission, and our reconstruction teams in Iraq and have performed valiantly, and their lives are at risk. Many have lost their lives and many more have lost their homes, their property, and their livelihood. For some, it will be too dangerous to ever return home.
America has a special obligation to keep faith with the Iraqis who now have a bulls-eye on their back because of their association with our Government.
Our bipartisan legislation will establish the kind of process that Ambassador Crocker, David Keene, Julia Taft, Roy Medved, Lanny Davis, and many others have called for to help these Iraqis who have sacrificed so much for the United States. I ask unanimous consent that the Washington Post article and other articles I have mentioned be printed in the Record.
I urge my colleagues to support our legislation, S. 1651, to keep the faith with the many brave Iraqis whose lives are in great danger because they have the courage to work with the United States.
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