I’m gonna ask you to imagine for a
moment that you’re fleeing gang violence
in El Salvador you’ve seen your friends
die be murdered in brutal ways and now
you’re getting threats so you decide to
move to another part of the country to
try to get away from them but it doesn’t
take long for the gangs to find you and
let you know that they know where you
are and when their threats start
including your five-year-old daughter
you decide you need to take more drastic
measures
so you pack up and you go to the United
States where you know people and you
think you’re going to be safe but when
you get to the border and you tell the
border officials your story and that
you’re fleeing violence and are afraid
to die they laugh at you they laugh and
they say we don’t take your kind here we
don’t want you anymore you need to go
back home to where you came from but you
know that going back and meet back means
certain death or worse death for your
child
so you refuse you insist that you need
to stay and ask for asylum and now their
laughter turns into anger they tell you
you’re wasting their time and that if
you insist on staying they’re gonna have
to separate you from your daughter this
makes no sense to you because you
explain to them that you’re here to save
your daughter’s life she can’t be here
without you
she needs you but they don’t listen and
as they hold your daughter out of your
arms she’s crying and she’s saying mommy
don’t leave me this Murray is story and
Maria wanted more than anything to tell
her daughter that everything was going
to be okay but the reality is is that
Maria was sitting in a prison she was
being threatened with prosecution for
trying to enter the country without
documents and she had no idea whether
she would ever see her daughter again
Maria’s story is not an isolated
incident there are thousands of women
like her trying to bring their children
to safety who are turned away separated
from their children or detained they’re
told that they have no right to asylum
even though they actually do so why am I
telling you this story these stories
that I hear way more than I would like
to I really just don’t fit with my image
of what this country stands for
I’m a mom I have two kids and I would do
anything to save their lives to protect
them even cross the border
I grew up immersed in the refugee story
my father’s from Argentina and my
mother’s Hungarian she left Hungary
during World War two when she was 8
years old and when I was growing up one
of my favorite stories was the story of
how her family crossed the border into
Switzerland
my grandfather her father bribed German
soldiers with gold watches and my
mother’s doll that she had just gotten
for her birthday so that they would fire
their guns into the air when they
crossed instead of at them and it worked
they got across but they won they got to
the Swiss border the Swiss officials
said no stop you can’t come in go back
to where you came from
my grandfather stood in front of them
and said if we go back there they will
kill us so if you’re not gonna let us in
you can shoot us right here because I’m
not walking back there
with my children to be shot
more than 70 years passed between my
mother’s story and Maria’s but they’re
strikingly similar one difference
however is that when my mother was
trying to enter Switzerland there was no
international Refugee Convention telling
countries how they should treat refugees
coming to their borders but today there
is after World War two
the United States led the way to create
a an agreement among countries of the
world that we would never again send
people who were fleeing violence and
oppression and threats back to a country
where they would be killed so how did we
get from there to here when I was
growing up I believed wholeheartedly in
the American fairy tale but the United
States was a place of freedom and of
safety that we protected the persecuted
we were actually leaders seen by
millions in the world as leaders in the
protection of refugees and asylum
seekers and refugees and asylum seekers
are really the same thing the difference
is how they’re processed so refugees are
processed overseas and asylum seekers
are processed here on the border of the
United States they present themselves
ask to come in and we have a process in
place for screening them in determining
who really is at risk if they leave so
here we are now immigration and refugees
and immigrants are in the news every day
we hear about ms-13 criminal aliens and
unaccompanied children all on the same
breath and we’re being told that hordes
of these kids and families are crossing
our borders and using loopholes to get
around our immigration systems and take
advantage of us but what are the numbers
really say in 2000 there were over 1.6
million people who were apprehended
trying to cross our southern border in
2016 they were barely 400,000 and today
there were even fewer
only about a hundred and forty of those
at their peak during the supposed crisis
where women and children compared to the
65 million displaced people in the world
these are totally manageable numbers for
a country like the United States so why
is everybody freaking out so much well
the demographics have changed the people
who were coming back in 2000 were mostly
Mexican they were coming to work and
they were not asking for attention so we
could very easily turn them back no
legal repercussions there but today many
more of them of the people coming up the
400,000 are asking for asylum and who
are these people
they’re coming primarily from Guatemala
Honduras and El Salvador these are three
of the five most dangerous countries in
the world and a lot of the targeting is
specifically at women and children a lot
of persecution in El Salvador for
example the femicide rate that’s the
rate the women murdered just for being
women went up by 30 percent in one year
these women and kids are survivors who
are determined not to be victims they’re
exactly the kind of people that have
made America great
this warm little nine-year-old girl Anna
she came here by herself at 9:00 said to
me I am NOT going to let those people
control my life if I die I’m gonna die
trying to live I can’t get that little
girl out of my mind because the reality
is is that most of the kids coming
they’re coming fleeing gangs they’re not
part of gangs these are the very people
that are asylum system was created to
protect and they’re doing exactly what
they’re supposed to do they’re
presenting themselves at the border
finding the first official they can and
asking for protection but instead of
putting through them through the system
and not sending anybody back to death
our political leaders and the media are
saying they’re using loopholes that
they’re illegal and that we need to find
a way to keep them out our government
panicked
they started talking about building
walls about changing our laws so that
they couldn’t use these supposedly poles
the loopholes are our Asylum system
they’re our system that we created as
leaders in the world for protecting
people and to commit to our promise of
never sending people back to their death
but we’ve gone from really being this
country where the Statue of Liberty is a
beacon of hope to a country that’s
turning people away at our borders even
though it does mean sending them to
their deaths we’re told that there are
only two options close our borders
change our laws keep people out and
protect ourselves or we’re going to be
overrun by undocumented people who’ve
caused wreak havoc in our communities so
the problem is that if we close our
borders to refugees and asylum seekers
they don’t go away they don’t disappear
their reality the threats to their life
continue and so just like anybody who
would be fleeing a burning house when
you lock the front door
they’re gonna find another way out so
look to smugglers and more dangerous
ways of getting to safety and as a
result we’re seeing people children
dying in the desert or in the back of
container trucks as they try to reach
safety I’m here to tell you it does not
have to be this way
I have a solution and here’s what I
suggest and what if instead of backing
off of our commitment to protect
refugees what if we showed the world we
leaned in we leaned into that promise
and showed the world that we can respect
human rights protect refugees and secure
our borders even in times of crisis
first let’s look at root causes instead
of locking the door on the burning house
and walking away why don’t we try
putting out the fire investing in rule
of law and accountability in Central
America and countries where people are
fleeing could create stability and stop
people from having to leave in the first
place what if we created protection
systems in
the region believe it or not not
everybody who flees Central America
wants to come to the United States
countries in the region saw a 1000%
increase in the number of people come to
coming to their countries from these
three really dangerous places so what if
instead of telling those countries to
build walls and keep people out we
helped them build up an asylum system
like ours so that people could find
safety closer to home and on our own
Shores what it we’ve seen that when
there’s a legal system for people to use
they use it nobody wants to live in the
shadows and be undocumented what if we
invested in our screening programs and
helped determine the viability of
everybody’s case in a timely manner what
if instead of detaining people and
separating children from their parents
we used alternatives to detention that
showcase American creativity and
ingenuity we have alternatives to
detention that have been 99.8% effective
and making sure people go through the
legal process
99% of children who have an attorney
show up for their hearings and nine out
of ten of those children win their cases
we can do this our system would work if
we believed in it and acknowledge that
the people arriving at our shores some
of them anyway are the exact people we
promised to protect so you’re wondering
now if I’m completely insane and how I
can believe this is possible given
what’s happening in Washington today
this is why I think it’s possible on the
day that Trump’s refugee ban went into
effect hundreds of thousands of people
hundreds of thousands of you showed up
at airports across this country you
showed the world that you are here 90
percent almost 90 percent that’s a lot
of people believe that dreamers we just
heard should be given a path to
citizenship when seventy percent of
Republicans think that
71% of Americans believe that we should
give refuge to anyone who shows up at
our border and is fleeing persecution so
how do we get our leaders to listen well
these images work these images gave hope
to millions of people around the world
that Americans still stand for something
that Americans still believe that we
should protect human rights and protect
refugees it’s time for us to ask
ourselves whether we really stand for
that what we stand for and who we are
and this is as much to protect our own
identity as it is to protect and save
the lives of these people
so keep marching keep protesting get to
know your neighbors get to know
immigrants and refugees in your
community vote support organizations
doing this work and do not believe the
rhetoric I know you’re tired because I’m
tired I’m really tired but you know
who’s really really tired that 23 year
old Salvadoran woman who walked 1,500
miles with a five year old only to get
to the United States be locked in a Cell
have her child taken away from her and
be told that there’s no more asylum in
the United States she didn’t give up
because she doesn’t have that choice she
can’t so let’s give people like Maria
and nine-year-old Ana the chance to live
standing up for our ideals it’s hard
work takes time and it takes
perseverance it’s not gonna happen in a
day but now is our time now it’s the
moment because if we don’t if we don’t
do something the very fundamental ideals
on which our country’s been based our
identity is gonna change possibly
forever thank you
you
moment that you’re fleeing gang violence
in El Salvador you’ve seen your friends
die be murdered in brutal ways and now
you’re getting threats so you decide to
move to another part of the country to
try to get away from them but it doesn’t
take long for the gangs to find you and
let you know that they know where you
are and when their threats start
including your five-year-old daughter
you decide you need to take more drastic
measures
so you pack up and you go to the United
States where you know people and you
think you’re going to be safe but when
you get to the border and you tell the
border officials your story and that
you’re fleeing violence and are afraid
to die they laugh at you they laugh and
they say we don’t take your kind here we
don’t want you anymore you need to go
back home to where you came from but you
know that going back and meet back means
certain death or worse death for your
child
so you refuse you insist that you need
to stay and ask for asylum and now their
laughter turns into anger they tell you
you’re wasting their time and that if
you insist on staying they’re gonna have
to separate you from your daughter this
makes no sense to you because you
explain to them that you’re here to save
your daughter’s life she can’t be here
without you
she needs you but they don’t listen and
as they hold your daughter out of your
arms she’s crying and she’s saying mommy
don’t leave me this Murray is story and
Maria wanted more than anything to tell
her daughter that everything was going
to be okay but the reality is is that
Maria was sitting in a prison she was
being threatened with prosecution for
trying to enter the country without
documents and she had no idea whether
she would ever see her daughter again
Maria’s story is not an isolated
incident there are thousands of women
like her trying to bring their children
to safety who are turned away separated
from their children or detained they’re
told that they have no right to asylum
even though they actually do so why am I
telling you this story these stories
that I hear way more than I would like
to I really just don’t fit with my image
of what this country stands for
I’m a mom I have two kids and I would do
anything to save their lives to protect
them even cross the border
I grew up immersed in the refugee story
my father’s from Argentina and my
mother’s Hungarian she left Hungary
during World War two when she was 8
years old and when I was growing up one
of my favorite stories was the story of
how her family crossed the border into
Switzerland
my grandfather her father bribed German
soldiers with gold watches and my
mother’s doll that she had just gotten
for her birthday so that they would fire
their guns into the air when they
crossed instead of at them and it worked
they got across but they won they got to
the Swiss border the Swiss officials
said no stop you can’t come in go back
to where you came from
my grandfather stood in front of them
and said if we go back there they will
kill us so if you’re not gonna let us in
you can shoot us right here because I’m
not walking back there
with my children to be shot
more than 70 years passed between my
mother’s story and Maria’s but they’re
strikingly similar one difference
however is that when my mother was
trying to enter Switzerland there was no
international Refugee Convention telling
countries how they should treat refugees
coming to their borders but today there
is after World War two
the United States led the way to create
a an agreement among countries of the
world that we would never again send
people who were fleeing violence and
oppression and threats back to a country
where they would be killed so how did we
get from there to here when I was
growing up I believed wholeheartedly in
the American fairy tale but the United
States was a place of freedom and of
safety that we protected the persecuted
we were actually leaders seen by
millions in the world as leaders in the
protection of refugees and asylum
seekers and refugees and asylum seekers
are really the same thing the difference
is how they’re processed so refugees are
processed overseas and asylum seekers
are processed here on the border of the
United States they present themselves
ask to come in and we have a process in
place for screening them in determining
who really is at risk if they leave so
here we are now immigration and refugees
and immigrants are in the news every day
we hear about ms-13 criminal aliens and
unaccompanied children all on the same
breath and we’re being told that hordes
of these kids and families are crossing
our borders and using loopholes to get
around our immigration systems and take
advantage of us but what are the numbers
really say in 2000 there were over 1.6
million people who were apprehended
trying to cross our southern border in
2016 they were barely 400,000 and today
there were even fewer
only about a hundred and forty of those
at their peak during the supposed crisis
where women and children compared to the
65 million displaced people in the world
these are totally manageable numbers for
a country like the United States so why
is everybody freaking out so much well
the demographics have changed the people
who were coming back in 2000 were mostly
Mexican they were coming to work and
they were not asking for attention so we
could very easily turn them back no
legal repercussions there but today many
more of them of the people coming up the
400,000 are asking for asylum and who
are these people
they’re coming primarily from Guatemala
Honduras and El Salvador these are three
of the five most dangerous countries in
the world and a lot of the targeting is
specifically at women and children a lot
of persecution in El Salvador for
example the femicide rate that’s the
rate the women murdered just for being
women went up by 30 percent in one year
these women and kids are survivors who
are determined not to be victims they’re
exactly the kind of people that have
made America great
this warm little nine-year-old girl Anna
she came here by herself at 9:00 said to
me I am NOT going to let those people
control my life if I die I’m gonna die
trying to live I can’t get that little
girl out of my mind because the reality
is is that most of the kids coming
they’re coming fleeing gangs they’re not
part of gangs these are the very people
that are asylum system was created to
protect and they’re doing exactly what
they’re supposed to do they’re
presenting themselves at the border
finding the first official they can and
asking for protection but instead of
putting through them through the system
and not sending anybody back to death
our political leaders and the media are
saying they’re using loopholes that
they’re illegal and that we need to find
a way to keep them out our government
panicked
they started talking about building
walls about changing our laws so that
they couldn’t use these supposedly poles
the loopholes are our Asylum system
they’re our system that we created as
leaders in the world for protecting
people and to commit to our promise of
never sending people back to their death
but we’ve gone from really being this
country where the Statue of Liberty is a
beacon of hope to a country that’s
turning people away at our borders even
though it does mean sending them to
their deaths we’re told that there are
only two options close our borders
change our laws keep people out and
protect ourselves or we’re going to be
overrun by undocumented people who’ve
caused wreak havoc in our communities so
the problem is that if we close our
borders to refugees and asylum seekers
they don’t go away they don’t disappear
their reality the threats to their life
continue and so just like anybody who
would be fleeing a burning house when
you lock the front door
they’re gonna find another way out so
look to smugglers and more dangerous
ways of getting to safety and as a
result we’re seeing people children
dying in the desert or in the back of
container trucks as they try to reach
safety I’m here to tell you it does not
have to be this way
I have a solution and here’s what I
suggest and what if instead of backing
off of our commitment to protect
refugees what if we showed the world we
leaned in we leaned into that promise
and showed the world that we can respect
human rights protect refugees and secure
our borders even in times of crisis
first let’s look at root causes instead
of locking the door on the burning house
and walking away why don’t we try
putting out the fire investing in rule
of law and accountability in Central
America and countries where people are
fleeing could create stability and stop
people from having to leave in the first
place what if we created protection
systems in
the region believe it or not not
everybody who flees Central America
wants to come to the United States
countries in the region saw a 1000%
increase in the number of people come to
coming to their countries from these
three really dangerous places so what if
instead of telling those countries to
build walls and keep people out we
helped them build up an asylum system
like ours so that people could find
safety closer to home and on our own
Shores what it we’ve seen that when
there’s a legal system for people to use
they use it nobody wants to live in the
shadows and be undocumented what if we
invested in our screening programs and
helped determine the viability of
everybody’s case in a timely manner what
if instead of detaining people and
separating children from their parents
we used alternatives to detention that
showcase American creativity and
ingenuity we have alternatives to
detention that have been 99.8% effective
and making sure people go through the
legal process
99% of children who have an attorney
show up for their hearings and nine out
of ten of those children win their cases
we can do this our system would work if
we believed in it and acknowledge that
the people arriving at our shores some
of them anyway are the exact people we
promised to protect so you’re wondering
now if I’m completely insane and how I
can believe this is possible given
what’s happening in Washington today
this is why I think it’s possible on the
day that Trump’s refugee ban went into
effect hundreds of thousands of people
hundreds of thousands of you showed up
at airports across this country you
showed the world that you are here 90
percent almost 90 percent that’s a lot
of people believe that dreamers we just
heard should be given a path to
citizenship when seventy percent of
Republicans think that
71% of Americans believe that we should
give refuge to anyone who shows up at
our border and is fleeing persecution so
how do we get our leaders to listen well
these images work these images gave hope
to millions of people around the world
that Americans still stand for something
that Americans still believe that we
should protect human rights and protect
refugees it’s time for us to ask
ourselves whether we really stand for
that what we stand for and who we are
and this is as much to protect our own
identity as it is to protect and save
the lives of these people
so keep marching keep protesting get to
know your neighbors get to know
immigrants and refugees in your
community vote support organizations
doing this work and do not believe the
rhetoric I know you’re tired because I’m
tired I’m really tired but you know
who’s really really tired that 23 year
old Salvadoran woman who walked 1,500
miles with a five year old only to get
to the United States be locked in a Cell
have her child taken away from her and
be told that there’s no more asylum in
the United States she didn’t give up
because she doesn’t have that choice she
can’t so let’s give people like Maria
and nine-year-old Ana the chance to live
standing up for our ideals it’s hard
work takes time and it takes
perseverance it’s not gonna happen in a
day but now is our time now it’s the
moment because if we don’t if we don’t
do something the very fundamental ideals
on which our country’s been based our
identity is gonna change possibly
forever thank you
you
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