>> all month, we are featuring our studentcam winners in c-span's documented competition. this year, students told us the most urgent issue for the new president and congress. our grand prize winners are sisters from blacksburg, virginia. ava lazar is homeschooled in the seventh-grade, mia lazar is in the ninth-grade. their documentary is called the tempest tossed. >> is not about what political party you are, it's about values and helping these people.

particularly personal because both my parents were refugees. i think that also drove them a little bit. when they do some video on a topic that's personal for them, that helps a lot. >> the reason we named the documentary the tempest tossed is because inside the museum of the statue, there is a plaque that has a following saying send it these hopeless -- homeless, tempest tossed to me. it was written specifically for the statue of liberty and we include it so we could show the values that america was founded on -- principles that everyone needs to understand it today. >> on a more personal scale i would suggest that the people

that think that refugees are all terrorists, or who were afraid of them should spend a while meeting one. they are really amazing people. they have just the right to be people in the united states as everyone else does very. >> the solution is not just changing the policy, which is would be amazing. but also by acting locally. >> we are going to save some for college. >> we're donating $1000 locally, and then we want to go backpacking in europe when we are older. some of the money is going to go for that. >> congratulations to our grand prize winners. take a look at their winning documentary. >> america is a nation of refugees and immigrants. most of the people living in the united states have stories of

immigration somewhere in their heritage. >> much as been lost to history. each day, there were 30,000 people are forced to flee their countries, not knowing if they are ever going to return. people are forced to make a difficult choice, to leave, or risk their life to stay. it's estimated that 6.5 million people are displaced worldwide, but they are not all defined as refugees. a refugee is someone who has been forced to flee their country because of persecution, war, or violence, and cannot return safely. with so many people desperate, politicians are arguing over whether the united states should let more refugees in the country. >> the syrians cannot be allowed to come in. we don't know who they are, there's no paperwork, no documentation. >> many people fear that bringing in refugees will increase the risk of terrorism, they believe that bringing in

refugees can reduce terrorism. >> we invited 3 million refugees, and not a single one of them has killed anyone in an act of terrorism. i think we are inflating the risk of terrorism. >> obviously, the united states is always going to have an openness and a willingness to accommodate people who are fleeing for their lives because of their political beliefs. however, there are limits to how many can be accommodated here in the united states because of the economic and fiscal cost to all our communities. there always the fears of terrorism and so on that come with refugee flows. >> we're opening up our countries from regions filled with terrorists. terrorists with the express intent to kill us. >> it is so important to understand the refugees themselves, when they are fleeing, it's because they are fleeing violence.

to turn them -- i think it's a bit of a contradiction. speaker >> most refugees come from somalia, afghanistan, and syria. over half of them are children. these people trying to seek asylum in nearby countries, will he end up in refugee camps. over 2.6 million refugees currently live in camps throughout the world. overcrowding and disease plague many of the camps. >> my grandmother was in a refugee camp, where the mortality rate was nearly 4%. >> when you're putting refugees in camp's for years and years, you're not letting them live up to their human potential area -- human potential. you make them dependent rather than contributing. it's a huge problem. i think there is a major

downside keeping refugees in refugee camps for a long time. you have a generation of individuals growing up without access to education, without access to jobs. that ultimately leads them to seek out radical solutions to those problems. that can lead to political turmoil, more violence, more war exactly the types of problems we are seeing. >> in the late 1940's, people all over the world realized something needed to be done and the many displaced people who fled their homes in europe after world war ii. >> why should we help these people? is a charity, is it human kindness, or is america a sucker to bother with these europeans now that we have been hitler's? a little human kindness, but not suckers. we realize that our half of the world, the american half, cannot remain well if the other half is sick. >> the office of the united nations office refugees was

created. it helped refugees find food, clean water, and shelter. in order to live in the united states, all refugees are thoroughly screened by a process called vetting. united states checks for medical issues, takes fingerprints, and interviews the refugees. >> the united states government handpicks each refugee that comes into the united states and individually interviews all of them. i believe it's important for people to understand how rigorous and long this process is. >> the fbi, the department of homeland security, and others are involved in the process. only half of the refugees make it through. many things have changed in the past century, many beliefs haven't. in a poll in 1939, only 30% of americans want to accept 10,000 jewish refugee children to live in the united states. in 2016, only a similar percentage supported letting

syrian refugees into the u.s. >> we have to remember we are always on our weakest when we have shut our door on refugees, when we have been afraid of them. and that are greatest when we let them in. never has this country really suffered any kind of security consequences due to letting in refugees, yet we use that as an excuse many times to keep them out. we did it in the john adams administration with the alien and sedition act and we've been doing it time and time again. every time we do it, we look back on that in shame. it did it in the 1920's, and it resulted in excluding many jews that tried to flee europe. not a proud moment. >> i have a natural empathy for people who have been persecuted. it's the reason i came to the u.s. and the reason i left my family, had to do with persecution. >> one really positive thing the

refugees bring to the united states is an opportunity to interact with the countries overseas from which they come, where there are a lot of misconceptions about the united states, what our intentions are in the region, what we are trying to do, what freedom of religion we have here, are we are to persecute muslims and other religious minorities, and the reality of religious freedom in the united states really does change minds, both in the united states and overseas. >> safety is important, but right now, we need to make a choice. should we bar people out for a fear of terrorism, or should we welcome the men -- them in? we think the question conscience -- congress shouldn't be asking is not should we help refugees, but how can we help them. we should make history. not repeated. >> to watch all the prize-winning documentaries, visit studentcam.org.

>> while congress was on a two-week rake, several lawmakers were holding town halls in their district. republican representative terry palmer met with constituents in gardendale, alabama on tuesday to discuss ongoing efforts to repeal and replace the health care law with the american health care act. congressman palmer was originally against the a h ca but is now in support of it after cosponsoring an amendment that would create a federal amendment for risksharing. include equal they for women. this is just over one hour.