Thank you.
I don't think I have ever been called Utopian, or anything.... You just need to talk to some of the students I've taught over the years and look at some of the other things I've done in my life.
I'll tell you, no human life is inconsequential. We're talking about very vulnerable people who come to our shores, who come to our country. By the way, in the last decade we've maybe had two boats—and I've heard that confirmed—and out of those two boats the vast majority were accepted as legitimate refugees.
When we're asking for this particular amendment...we did mention the Roma, and we'll use that as an example. Last year we accepted well over 100 people from the Roma community as refugees under the Geneva Convention.
All we're asking for in this amendment is for us to recognize something we already know: there is no country that is 100% safe.