Kerry - The Refugee Act: More Reason to Celebrate Ted Kennedy's Legacy

[ProSense]

John Kerry

The Refugee Act: More Reason to Celebrate Ted Kennedy's Legacy

My colleague of twenty five years, Ted Kennedy, left an enormous imprint on the Senate and on our country. Today we quietly mark the 30th anniversary of one of his most visionary legislative accomplishments.

The Refugee Act of 1980 paved the way for what is now the most robust and effective refugee program in the world. Thirty years later, we can celebrate the almost three million refugees we have welcomed into our land and our lives.

Many fled unspeakable horror and persecution. All learned firsthand our country's generous spirit of welcome. The "lost boy" from southern Sudan whose village was destroyed in civil war. The young man unlucky enough to be born an ethnic Rohingya in Burma, despised by his own government and denied even the basic identity papers that connote official personhood. The mother of three whose husband was killed by insurgents in return for his service to American troops in Iraq. The American people have welcomed all of them -- and many more.

All were lucky to make it out of their countries alive. But no refugees anywhere in the world face an easy path in a new land. Many come with painful memories of violence, and others with fears of unspeakable horrors narrowly escaped. Others wake up each day and wonder what their lives will become. Too often, they exchange one set of dangerous conditions for overcrowded, unsanitary, and even violent camps. Many of our family histories contain similar stories, and we should all remember the persistence, compassion and good fortune that allowed the next chapters to be written on our shores.

In fact, these refugees, many of whom arrive having lost everything, become some of the most resilient, entrepreneurial and devoted citizens we have. The ranks of refugees who succeeded in America include former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, U.S. Olympian Lopez Lomong, the late Congressman Tom Lantos and, of course, Albert Einstein. The difference between these individuals, and so many sitting in refugee camps, is that a new country and its people took a chance on them.

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