Bill Pascrell: “I have lived in Paterson, New Jersey, all my life, which has a large Syrian American population. In fact, when I came…”

“I have lived in Paterson, New Jersey, all my life, which has a large Syrian American population. In fact, when I came back from the service, I joined the American Legion. It was the John Raad Post, which was a Syrian American military organization. These are hardworking people here. The advantage of what we are doing, and over the past 4 years since the beginning of the Syrian war, the civil war, is that we are connecting refugees with Syrian American families. There are no harder working people in this country than Syrian Americans. Know the history of it. They didn't come here last week. So here is the chart. This is what you need to go through to get a refugee into the United States of America. I hope you looked at the chart. I hope you have examined every step, the 14 steps. Let's not get into one side wants to secure America more than the other side. I served in the Armed Forces. I was on the beginning of the Select Committee on Homeland Security. I don't like anybody telling me: You guys tried to do that in 2005, and you lost in 2006. Stay away from it. No one party is privy to protecting this country. We all want that. But we are not going to sacrifice what we, as Americans, are. We are not going to do this. When women and children who have nothing on their back--nothing--and 2 or 3 years, they could finally come to the gate of the greatest country in the world--yeah, you may smile over there, but I am very serious about what I am saying.…”