{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=400013", "<span class =\"kicker\">Trentonian article on Smith trip to Iraq to visit refugees</span>'NJ Congressman Chris Smith makes Christmas-season visit to Iraq, says ISIS genocide must end'", "2016-12-27", "2016", "2016-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "By Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman, of The Trentonian - As millions of people around the globe celebrate a merry Christmas, Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey has made a recent trip to Iraq to meet with Christian survivors of a nearly three-year-long ISIS-fueled genocide.\r\n\u201cThis Christmas season, the survival of Christians in Iraq, where they have lived for almost 2,000 years, is at stake,\u201d Smith, a Republican who represents parts of Mercer, Ocean and Monmouth counties, said Tuesday in a statement. \u201cI hope that President-elect (Donald) Trump will act urgently to make sure his administration helps these Christians with the funds Congress has approved for survivors of ISIS atrocities.\u201d\r\nChaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda, the highest-ranking ordained Catholic in the Iraqi city of Erbil, invited Smith to the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. During their meeting, according to Smith\u2019s office, Archbishop Warda emphasized that unless the ancient minority Christian communities of Iraq received significant financial support very soon, they may not survive.  \r\n\r\n\r\n    \r\n        \r\n              U.S. Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey (center) meets with Iraqi Archbishop \r\n            Bashar Warda (right) and Christian survivors of the ISIS-fueled genocide in \r\n            Iraq on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016. Photo Courtesy of U.S. Rep. Chris Smith\u2019s Office\r\n        \r\n    \r\n\r\n\r\n\u201cMy Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act legislation is a blueprint for how to assist Christians and other genocide survivors and hold perpetrators accountable,\u201d Smith said of his H.R. 5961 bill that was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in September. \u201cI will be working tirelessly to get this bill on the new president\u2019s desk when we reconvene in January.\u201d\r\nPresident-elect Trump is a Republican who has vowed to destroy ISIS.\r\n\r\nSmith accused President Barack Obama\u2019s Democratic administration of ignoring Christian families who have survived the ISIS genocide, but U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry gave a speech earlier this year highlighting the known atrocities of ISIS, a terrorist group also known as Islamic State, ISIL and Daesh.\r\n\r\nKerry on March 17 revealed his personal judgment that ISIS \u201cis responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control, including Yezidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims\u201d and noted that \u201cDaesh is also responsible for crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing directed at these same groups and in some cases against Sunni Muslims and Kurds and other minorities.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThe fact is that Daesh kills Christians because they are Christians; Yezidis because they are Yezidis; Shia because they are Shia,\u201d Kerry added. \u201cThis is the message it conveys to children under its control. Its entire worldview is based on eliminating those who do not subscribe to its perverse ideology.\u201d\r\n\r\nIn addition to being a congressman, Smith also chairs the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the U.S. Helsinki Commission, a U.S. government agency that promotes human rights worldwide.\r\n\r\nThe U.S. Helsinki Commission is affiliated with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, also known as the OSCE, which comprises 57 participating nation-states throughout the world, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Turkey and Russia.\r\n\r\nSmith has urged leaders in other OSCE countries to provide more humanitarian assistance to Christian genocide survivors and to support criminal investigations into people suspected of perpetrating genocide.\r\n\r\nA July 2016 report published by the Institute for International Law and Human Rights and other organizations said: \u201cMany minority communities in Iraq are now on the verge of disappearance. The Christian population, which before 2003 numbered as many as 1.4 million, had dwindled to 350,000 by early 2014, and since the ISIS advance is now estimated as under 250,000.\u201dThis article originally ran on page 3 of the Dec. 25, 2016\u00a0print edition of the Trentonian daily newspaper, and can be found online at:\r\nhttp://www.trentonian.com/general-news/20161224/nj-congressman-chris-smith-makes-christmas-season-visit-to-iraq-says-isis-genocide-must-end", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=400013"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7965320255607367, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}