Pramila Jayapal Rips Trump's 'Absurd' & 'Arbitrary' Travel Ban

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During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) spoke about the visa process.

Transcript

00:00for five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Maintaining a healthy, robust, secure visa system

00:06so people from all over the world can come to America is not, should not be a partisan issue.

00:12Immigration has always been and continues to be one of the essential factors to America's success

00:18as a nation. Immigrants set up our founding governance system, serve in our armed forces,

00:24power our economy in just about every sector, and have brought innovation and entrepreneurial spirit

00:29with nearly half of Fortune 500 companies founded by immigrants or their children. We have, as our

00:36witness said, strong systems to ensure integrity with the terms of visa holders. There are already

00:43consequences for those who violate the terms of their visas. For example, committing marriage fraud

00:48to obtain an immigration benefit is already a federal crime. Our visa system has been the pathway

00:54for ambition and opportunity for so much of the rest of the world. And it's so disheartening to

01:00see the Trump administration do everything it can to destroy the legal immigration system. Look, I know

01:07this system very well. I might have come to one of the embassies that you were at. I came to the United

01:12States on a student visa. I made my way through an alphabet soup of visas. It took me 17 years to become

01:19a U.S. citizen. And I eventually ended up here as the first naturalized citizen to serve as ranking

01:24member of this subcommittee in Congress on immigration. That's a testament to the amazing

01:32things that can only happen in the United States of America. Mr. Narasta, let me ask you, your testimony

01:38does a great job of showing the intense level of vetting students and other visa applicants receive

01:44when applying to come to this country. Tell the American citizen that's out there watching

01:49what the benefit is to them of having foreign students come to the United States and why it

01:56actually helps the United States if they decide to seek employment here after finishing their course

02:01of study. So the benefits are extraordinary. Oftentimes, foreign students are the first step in a long

02:09process, just like your process, of eventually getting oftentimes OPT, oftentimes an H-1B visa,

02:16and then an employment-based green card, and then citizenship. That is the way that the immigration

02:22system has been set up in the United States. So if we want to have the benefits of high-skilled

02:28immigrants and entrepreneurs, people like Elon Musk, who started here in the United States on these same

02:33ways, and millions of other people, then we need to maintain a large, open student visa system,

02:41because it's the first link in that chain. Thank you. The Trump administration has targeted student

02:45visa holders in all these different ways, and there's been incredible chaos in the student visa

02:50system. There's been canceling of visas without warning, sending masked ICE officers to kidnap and

02:56disappear students, pausing visa interviews for student and exchange visas right when those applicants

03:03would normally be starting to apply for their visas. One student lost his status because of an issue with

03:09a phishing license. Another lost hers because she was a victim of domestic violence, and the police

03:15picked up both her and her abuser. About 15 percent of the foreign physicians who were supposed to come

03:21here to work at training hospitals, when we have a real dearth of medical professionals, were unable

03:28to get their visas in time. How does all of that chaos hurt our country and our ability to retain and

03:36attract top talent that we need here in America? The Trump administration's sowing of chaos in the legal

03:43immigration system undermines much of what makes this country successful, great, and free. Economic

03:50uncertainty is a killer. This is one of the things that I learned in my education, that I saw around

03:54the world, that you see in our practice, and nothing like uncertainty in employment, in legal

04:00residency, in being able to be here, so is devastation. It makes people's lives unsettled, both for the

04:06immigrants and their American families, employers, friends, the schools where they are, their neighbors.

04:14It unsettles everything. It is devastating to this country. It is devastating to them, and it's devastating

04:20to future Americans. Let me turn to the absurd travel ban, arbitrary travel ban that President

04:25Trump announced. He alleges this travel ban is necessary to protect us from terrorist attacks

04:30and other national security threats. Is that true, just yes or no? No. So let me go through some

04:35examples. Given the recent events in Boulder, Colorado, why is Egypt not on the banned list?

04:39Egypt was also one of the countries, along with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Lebanon, who were involved in

04:459-11. Your testimony, as you noted, 98% of the people killed in the United States by foreign terrorists

04:51were casualties of 9-11. Why are none of those countries on the banned list? I mean, explain this

04:56to me. Make some sense of it. I'm sorry, but I can't explain something where there is absolutely no

05:01sense. It doesn't make any sense. It's totally arbitrary. It seems like a justification for reducing

05:06legal immigration that is divorced from any legitimate security or national security or anti-crime

05:12perspective. It is just an arbitrary ban, and I guarantee we're going to have more of them

05:16come down the line that are based on nothing more than the desire to reduce legal immigration.

05:21Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I have a unanimous consent request to enter. This is a press release from the

05:27Department of Homeland Security, and it highlights that some of the Iranian nationals that recently

05:33were arrested and entered the country or were ordered removed under the Trump administration.

05:37Great. You're back. Without objection. Thank you. And now the gentleman from Arizona, the group.

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