Speeches & Floor Statements

Statement of Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee Chairman Trey Gowdy
Hearing on Asylum Fraud

If you want an American version of the running of the bulls stand at the bottom of the steps after votes on a fly out day.  We are all in a hurry to get home and I may be the worst culprit of all.  

A few weeks ago a young boy and his sister were at the bottom of the steps waiting on me.  "Mr. Gowdy.  Mr. Gowdy. Do you have a minute?" The young boy was 10 and his precious little sister was either 3 or 4.  She held up three fingers but the 4^th finger kept creeping up so we settled on 3 and a half.  I picked the little girl up and asked her brother what I could help him with.  I didn’t know if he wanted to talk about education or medical research or immigration.  What he said was he wanted to know if he could pray for me.  That was all he wanted.  He wanted to say a prayer.  So, I held his sister and he said a beautiful prayer at the foot of our Capitol.

I think about those children often but I thought about them specifically over the weekend.  My friend the Ranking Member sent me an article on religious persecution over the weekend. Shortly thereafter I saw another article about a man in Central Africa whose throat was cut simply because he was a Christian.

We have the contrast between the greatness of this country where even a young boy and his sister can petition their government at the foot of the Capitol, waiting on their representatives to practice the freedom of expression, the freedom of assembly and the freedom of religious expression by openly praying in the shadow of the Capitol, contrast that with the reality that in other countries you face persecution for your beliefs. You may be put to death for possession of a Bible.  You may be denied access to education based on gender. You may be persecuted or killed if your religious beliefs do not match the religious beliefs of the majority.  You will be victimized and the criminal justice system will be closed to you because you do not believe the right things or look the right way.

Our fellow citizens recognize the gift we were given being born in a land that values and practices religious freedom.  And because we realize how fortunate we are compared to the plights of others, there is a tremendous generosity of spirit we feel toward those who were born into or live in oppression, discrimination, persecution and retaliation.  Americans are generous in spirit and that generosity is evidenced by our willingness to help.  

But Americans expect that generosity will be respected and not abused.  We expect those that seek to come here are honest and fair in their petitions.  We know there are survivors of inconceivable and heinous atrocities.  We are outraged and sympathetic.  More than just sympathy we are willing to open our country to provide those in need with a refuge, with a sanctuary, with safety and dignity.  About all we ask in return is that the system not be abused.  That our generosity of spirit not be taken advantage of. 

Today we will examine how can we protect the integrity of our asylum program while ensuring we will not extend this special benefit to those who seek to take advantage, or worse yet, exploit American generosity to do us harm.