Department Of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2010

Floor Speech

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Mr. NADLER of New York. Madam Chair, I rise in support of H.R. 2892, the Homeland Security Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2010.

While the bill provides vitally necessary funds to secure our nation's safety, it also contains a troubling provision regarding people who are currently detained at the Guantanamo Bay facility. This provision would prohibit the use of any funds in the bill to provide any immigration benefits to any Guantanamo detainee. Examples provided by the bill of such benefits include ``a visa, admission into the United States, parole into the United States, or classification as a refugee or applicant for asylum.'' The language does include the proviso that nothing in this provision prohibits detainees from being brought into the United States for prosecution.

Now, I want to prosecute and punish anyone who has sought to harm the United States or is responsible for attacks on the United States and its people. But, we do not know that everyone in Guantanamo fits into this category. There are likely people still imprisoned at Guantanamo today who are there, not because they are a threat, but because our government can not figure out what to do with them. As you know, the Bush Administration already released many people from Guantanamo who were wrongly detained there and our courts have ordered the release of others who apparently were not linked to any terrorist organization and pose no threat to the United States. There were, and possibly still are, innocent people being detained by our government at Guantanamo Bay.

It is shameful for our country to deny a visa to an innocent person who we have determined is no threat to the United States, who the United States wrongly imprisoned for years, who may be prosecuted if returned to his own country, and who the United States may not be able to send to any other country. Frankly, if they are innocent of any crime and pose no threat to the United States, they should be allowed to come to the United States. In addition, I do not see how we can deny them asylum if we determine they have a legitimate fear of persecution if sent anywhere else.

Because the Homeland Security bill provides such critical funding to first responders all over the country, and especially to my city of New York, I can not justify voting against it. Funding for these services is desperately needed.

However, I want to warn my colleagues about the dangers of reflexively adding provisions to every appropriations bill that may end up further harming innocent people who were mistakenly imprisoned by our government. If you want to make a political point that you oppose terrorists, fine. But, you have to allow for the fact that until we know for sure that all of the people remaining at Guantanamo are terrorists, it is not right to punish everyone who is there just to make a political point. We have a moral obligation to do better.

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