Quotes on Immigration and Refugee Policy

"Everywhere, immigrants have enriched and strengthened the fabric of American life."
- John F. Kennedy (1958)

"Maybe it’s the instinct of every immigrant, born of necessity or of longing: Someplace else will be better than here. And the condition: if only I can get to that place."
- Cristina Henriquez, The Book of Unknown Americans (2014) 

"There is a day when you turn off the light of your house, close the door and run. You don’t think [of] all the things you left behind, you think that you need to take your family out."
- Carmen Goiricelaya (2017)

"We started the procedure for resettlement and coming here...it’s a really long frustrating procedure. It’s easy to say it, but when you live it, it’s just so hard...And you take this chance why? Because, it’s a chance, it’s something."
- Maha Karahamad (2017)

"It’s four interviews, first interview with the U.N., the second with the U.N. just to have the file ready...the third I made with IOM [International Organization for Migration]...between, each one of them is months of waiting with no answer...just holding your life there. I’m not sure I’m staying here, not sure I’m moving, but it’s like something in the air....you can be on hold for six months, for a year – again, they don’t owe you any answer." 
- Maha Karahamad (2017)

"So I had my dedicated group, they helped me with doctor appointments, they helped me with settling the kids at public schools...They were so great,...they really supported me.  I felt love, and I felt cared for, as well as my kids."   
- Maha Karahamad (2017)

"I hope we keep the basic American spirit of welcoming the immigrant. The Statue of Liberty is still my most favorite sight in United States." 
- Jatin Mehta (2017)

“I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong.”
- George Washington (1788)