REP. LIEU RESPONDS TO TRUMP’S PLAN TO REDUCE REFUGEE CAP

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON - Today, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D | Los Angeles County) issued the following statement regarding the Trump Administration's plan to severely reduce the number of refugees admitted to the United States next year. The President's plan reduces the number of refugees the U.S. will accept from 110,000 to 45,000.

"The decision by the Trump Administration to turn its back on the world's most vulnerable people is profoundly un-American. We're letting fear, hate and xenophobia dictate our policies instead of our core values and actual facts. According to the CATO Institute, the likelihood of being killed by a refugee committing a terrorist act is one in 3.6 billion. But the likelihood of being struck by lightning twice is one in nine million. In other words, you are 40,000 percent more likely to be struck by lightning—twice—than to be killed by a refugee-turned-terrorist.

As a veteran, I'm appalled at the Trump Administration claiming that our national security comes at the expense of the lives of those fleeing war and famine. Great military strategists teach that we defeat our enemy by knowing our enemy. Our enemies are terrorist networks like ISIS, not refugees fleeing violence and persecution. If we renege on our responsibility to help the most vulnerable, we are no global leader. I am saddened by the Trump Administration's heartless action, which is both morally wrong and strategically stupid."

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