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I never thought I would repeat the words I spoke in Geneva so long ago, but they ring in my ears once again: “Let us do something meaningful — something profound — to stem this misery.”

The events leading up to the Geneva conference were dire, much like events of today at the heart of the refugee crisis. A heartbreaking and infuriating difference between then and now is that 40 years ago, the United States led the charge to rally support for increased humanitarian aid and refugee resettlement. Today, it is the United States that is systematically dismantling the refugee protection framework we were instrumental in constructing in the first place.

As a result of our government’s leadership in 1979, countries in Southeast Asia made provisions to offer temporary asylum to refugees. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) introduced the Orderly Departure Program, an attempt to improve the safety of departure and travel to other countries for resettlement. Western countries agreed to boost resettlement, welcoming hundreds of thousands of refugees. Following the Geneva conference, the U.S. Refugee Act of 1980 was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter after first passing with full bipartisan support in the Senate. The act nearly tripled the number of refugees the United States would admit, and, perhaps most important, amended the definition of refu­gee to include someone with “well-founded fear of persecution.”

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In short, hundreds of thousands of lives were saved.

Make no mistake, I firmly believe in and support nations’ prerogatives to control their borders. But it is imperative that the United States does this in a manner consistent with both U.S. and international law and that reflects America’s founding principle of welcoming those most in need.

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There is hope. While most Americans do not have the privileges my office afforded me in 1979, nor the platforms upon which to speak out, there are steps everyone can take to make a real, tangible impact. Contact your representatives in Washington. Make the case for an increase in refugee admissions. Speak up against this administration’s tactics of cruelty and inhumane treatment of asylum seekers at our border. And, of course, change can be made with a vote when the time comes. When enough voices are raised, change can happen. As we promised in Geneva, it is time to take action: “History will not forgive us if we fail. History will not forget us if we succeed.”