If you’ve seen me on the campaign trail, you may have noticed that I almost always wear the same necklace. My Aunt Licie brought this necklace with her when she fled Germany in 1933. It was one of the very few possessions that made it with her to her new life in America.
Aunt Licie was a Jewish refugee who had lost her country, her language, her bank account—everything except, most importantly, her life, which made her among the very luckiest German Jews of her generation. The necklace, which she left me when she died in 1982, was the enduring symbol of the world she had lost to a racist dictator, a world she could never again return to. My grandfather escaped Nazi Berlin even later, in September 1938, just six weeks before Kristallnacht.
Almost forty years later, I was brought home from Park Plaza Hospital to Southside Place, Houston. Stories about the Holocaust and our relatives who had survived it — all thanks to a well-placed cousin in San Francisco — were a constant feature of my childhood, and helped me appreciate the diverse, welcoming city where I grew up. That’s why it pains me so deeply to see what is happening in America today:
President Trump’s latest version of a travel ban goes into effect this evening. This ban will block any refugees from entering the country, unless they can prove a “close relationship” with someone in the United States. Grandparents, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, and cousins will not be considered “close relationships.”
If there had been a travel ban on refugees, even those with cousins in the United States, in 1933, it is very likely that I would not be a candidate for Congress today. In fact, it is very likely that I wouldn’t be here at all, and that my family’s lineage would have ended in Germany with my grandparents, aunts, and uncles.
I wear this necklace on the campaign trail because it reminds me of why every day and every moment in this election matters. There are people counting on us to overturn this ban, people just like my grandfather Frank and my Aunt Licie, who only want to find a safe place to stay. And that’s why I’m asking:
Will you add your name to our petition to overturn this cruel travel ban?
This is personal to me, as I’m sure it is personal to the many Americans who are here because their families sought refuge in this country. Thank you for joining us in support of the next generation of refugees.