0:00:01.053,0:00:04.201
Last summer I got a call[br]from a woman named Ellie,

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and she had heard about[br]the family separations

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at the southern border, and wanted[br]to know what she could do to help.

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She told me this story

0:00:11.625,0:00:14.012
of her grandfather and his father.

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When they were kids in Poland,

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their father,

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fearing for his son's safety,

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gave them a little bit of money[br]and told them to walk west,

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to just keep walking west across Europe,

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and they did.

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They walked all the way[br]west across Europe,

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and they got on a boat[br]and they got to America.

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Ellie said that when she heard[br]the stories of the teens

0:00:36.403,0:00:38.823
walking up across Mexico,

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all she could think about[br]was her grandfather and his brother.

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She said that for her, the stories[br]were exactly the same.

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Those brothers were[br]the Hassenfeld Brothers,

0:00:51.656,0:00:54.157
the Hasbros.

0:00:54.796,0:00:58.403
The Hasbro toy company,[br]which of course brought us

0:00:58.403,0:01:00.481
Mr. Potato Head.

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But that is not actually why[br]I'm telling you this story.

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I'm telling you this story[br]because it made me think

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about whether I would have the faith,

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the courage, to send my teens,

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and I have three of them,

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on a journey like that.

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Knowing that they wouldn't[br]be safe where we were,

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would I be able to watch them go?

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I started my career decades ago

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at the southern US border working[br]with Central American asylum seekers,

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and in the last 16 years,

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I've been at HIAS,

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the Jewish organization that fights[br]for refugee rights around the world,

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as a lawyer and an advocate,

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and one thing I've learned[br]is that sometimes

0:01:49.068,0:01:54.524
the things that we're told make us[br]safer and stronger actually don't.

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And, in fact, some of these policies[br]have the opposite of the intended results,

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and in the meantime cause tremendous[br]and unnecessary suffering.

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So why are people showing up[br]at our southern border?

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Most of the immigrants and refugees[br]that are coming to our southern border

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are fleeing three countries:[br]Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

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These countries are consistently ranked

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among the most violent[br]countries in the world.

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It's very difficult to be safe[br]in these countries,

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let alone build a future[br]for yourself and your family.

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And violence against[br]women and girls is pervasive.

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People have been fleeing Central America

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for generations.

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Generations of refugees[br]have been coming to our shores,

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fleeing the civil wars of the 1980s

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in which the United States[br]was deeply involved.

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This is nothing new.

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What's new is that recently,[br]there's been a spike in families,

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children of families,

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showing up at checkpoints[br]and presenting themselves to seek asylum.

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Now, this has been in the news lately,

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so I want you to remember a few things[br]as you see those images.

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One, this is not a historically high level[br]of interceptions at the southern border,

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and, in fact, people are presenting[br]themselves at checkpoints.

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Two, people are showing up[br]with the clothes on their backs;

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some of them are literally in flip-flops.

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And three, we're the most[br]powerful country in the world.

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It's not a time to panic.

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It's easy from the safety[br]of the destination country

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to think in terms of absolutes.

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Is it legal or is it illegal?

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But the people who are wrestling[br]with these questions

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and making these decisions[br]about their families

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are thinking about[br]very different questions.

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How do I keep my daughter safe?

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How do I protect my son?

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And if you want absolutes,

0:03:54.598,0:03:57.356
it's absolutely legal to seek asylum.

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It is a fundamental right in our own laws[br]and in international law.

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And in fact

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(Applause)

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it stems from the 1951 Refugee Convention,

0:04:14.640,0:04:17.736
which was the world's response[br]to the Holocaust,

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and a way for countries to say never again[br]would we return people to countries

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where they would harmed or killed.

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There are several ways[br]refugees come to this country.

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One is through the US Refugee[br]Admissions Program,

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and through that program the US[br]identifies and selects refugees abroad

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and brings them to the United States.

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Last year, the US resettled fewer refugees

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than at any time since[br]the program began in 1980,

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and this year it'll probably be less.

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And this is at a time when we have[br]more refugees in the world

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than at any other time[br]in recorded history,

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even since World War II.

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Another way that refugees[br]come to this country is by seeking asylum.

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Asylum seekers are people[br]who present themselves at a border

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and say that they'll be persecuted[br]if they're sent back home.

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An asylum seeker is simply somebody[br]who is going through the process

0:05:07.514,0:05:12.359
in the United States to prove[br]that they meet the refugee definition.

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And it's never been[br]more difficult to seek asylum.

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Border guards are telling people[br]When they show up at our borders

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that our country's full,[br]that they simply can't apply.

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This is unprecedented and illegal.

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Under a new program

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with the kind of Orwellian title[br]"Migrant Protection Protocols,"

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refugees are told[br]they have to wait in Mexico

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while their cases make their way[br]through the courts in the United States,

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and this can take months or years.

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Meanwhile, they're not safe

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and they have no access to lawyers.

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Our country, our government,[br]has detained over 3,000 children,

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separating them from their parents' arms[br]as a deterrent from seeking asylum.

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Many were toddlers,

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and at least one was[br]a six-year old blind girl,

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and this is still going on.

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We spend billions to detain people[br]in what are virtually prisons

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who have committed no crime.

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And family separation has become[br]the hallmark of our immigration system.

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That's a far cry from a shining city[br]on a hill or a beacon of hope

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or all of the other ways we like to talk[br]about ourselves and our values.

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Migration has always been with us[br]and it always will be.

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The reasons why people flee --[br]persecution, war, violence,

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climate change,

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and the ability now to see on your phone[br]what life is like in other places --

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those pressures are only growing.

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But there are ways that we can have[br]policies that reflect our values

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and actually make sense,[br]given the reality in the world.

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The first thing we need to do[br]is dial back the toxic rhetoric

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that has been the basis of our national[br]debate on this issue for too long.

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(Applause)

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I am not an immigrant or a refugee myself,

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but I take these attacks personally,[br]because my grandparents were.

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My great-grandmother Rose[br]didn't see her kids for seven years

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as she tried to bring them[br]from Poland to New York.

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She left my grandfather when he was seven[br]and didn't see him again until he was 14.

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On the other side of my family,[br]my grandmother Elisa

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left Poland in the 1930s

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and left for what was then[br]the British mandate of Palestine

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and she never saw[br]her family and friends again.

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Global cooperation as a response[br]to global migration and displacement

0:07:47.137,0:07:49.972
would go a long way towards[br]making migration something

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that isn't a crisis

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but something that just is,

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and that we deal with[br]as a global community.

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Humanitarian aid is also critical.

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The amount of support we provide[br]to countries in Central America

0:08:02.114,0:08:04.537
that are sending refugees and migrants

0:08:04.537,0:08:08.920
is a tiny fraction of the amount[br]we spend on enforcement and detention.

0:08:08.920,0:08:15.660
And we can absolutely[br]have an asylum system that works.

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For a tiny fraction of the cost of a wall,

0:08:18.434,0:08:19.929
we could hire more judges,

0:08:19.929,0:08:22.063
make sure asylum seekers have lawyers,

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and commit to a humane asylum system.

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(Applause)

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And we could resettle more refugees.

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To give you a sense of the decline[br]in the refugee program,

0:08:39.583,0:08:43.814
three years ago, the US[br]resettled 15,000 Syrian refugees

0:08:43.814,0:08:46.399
in response to the largest[br]refugee crisis on Earth.

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A year later, that number was 3,000,

0:08:49.602,0:08:53.555
and last year that number was 62 people.

0:08:53.555,0:08:55.891
62 people.

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Despite the harsh rhetoric[br]and efforts to block immigration,

0:09:01.054,0:09:02.904
keep refugees out of the country,

0:09:02.904,0:09:06.269
support for refugees and immigrants[br]in this country, according to polls,

0:09:06.269,0:09:07.686
has never been higher.

0:09:07.686,0:09:09.914
Organizations like HIAS, where I work,

0:09:09.914,0:09:11.930
and other humanitarian[br]and faith-based organizations

0:09:11.930,0:09:14.340
make it easy for you to take a stand

0:09:14.340,0:09:16.838
when there's a law that's worth opposing

0:09:16.838,0:09:20.804
or a law that's worth supporting[br]or policy that needs oversight.

0:09:20.804,0:09:22.178
If you have a phone,

0:09:22.178,0:09:23.407
you can do something,

0:09:23.407,0:09:25.179
and if you want to do more, you can.

0:09:25.179,0:09:28.490
I will tell you that if you see[br]one of these detention centers

0:09:28.490,0:09:31.151
along the border with children in them,

0:09:31.151,0:09:34.407
their jails, you will never be the same.

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What I loved so much[br]about my call with Ellie

0:09:38.497,0:09:42.304
was that she knew in her core[br]that the stories of her grandparents

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were no different than today's stories,

0:09:45.210,0:09:47.637
and she wanted to do something about it.

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If I leave you with one thing

0:09:51.571,0:09:54.285
beyond the backstory from Mr. Potato Head,

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which is, of course,[br]a good story to leave with,

0:09:57.508,0:10:05.119
it's that a country shows strength[br]through compassion and pragmatism,

0:10:05.119,0:10:07.681
not through force and through fear.

0:10:07.681,0:10:11.007
(Applause)

0:10:17.363,0:10:21.670
These stories of the Hassenfelds[br]and my relatives and your relatives

0:10:21.670,0:10:24.813
are still happening today.[br]They're all the same.

0:10:25.049,0:10:28.770
A country is strong[br]when it says to the refugee,

0:10:28.770,0:10:31.557
not, "Go away," but,

0:10:31.557,0:10:35.312
"It's OK, we've got you, you're safe."

0:10:35.312,0:10:36.648
Thank you.

0:10:36.648,0:10:39.348
(Applause)

0:10:39.348,0:10:40.578
Thanks.

0:10:40.578,0:10:41.939
(Applause)