Mr. President. as chairman of the Subcommittee on Refugess. Escapees. and Expellees week after week I have been making a report to the Senate based on the figures furnished me by the Department of State showing the status of visa applications issued under the Refugee Relief Act of 1953. Some weeks I have been very much encouraged. and I was convinced that all was running smoothly in the Department of State. However. this week I have paused long enough to take a good look at the overall picture. and I do not hesitate to say that my optimism is somewhat vanishing. As is well known. under the Refugee Relief Act of 1953Public Law 203. 83d Congressthere are to be issued 214.000 special nonquota immigrant visas. This act has been in operation for 2 years. lacking a few days. To be exact. it has been in operation since August 7. 1953. which is approximately 100 weeks. During those 100 weeks. there have been issued exactly 39.869 visas. This is at the rate of 398 visas a week. 214.000 minus 39.869 leaves a balance of 174.131 visas to be issued. and this during a period of 1 year or 52 weeks. I say during a period of 1 year. because while the technical cutoff date under the act is December 31. 1956. the actual cutoff date for all intents and purposes. will be July 1956. since approximately 6 months are required to process a case. Therefore. the Department of State will not be able to issue many visas during the last hour of the last day. So. accepting the actual cutoff date as July 1956. we have 52 weeks in which to issue 174.131 visas. This must be at the rate of 3.348 visas a week and I submit that this is far above the present rate. When I first began to analyze these figures coming from the Department of State. I did so with an open mind. I admitted that Public Law 203 was an extremely difficult piece of immigrant legislation. and I felt that the Administrator was doing everything he possibly could. Now I am not so sure. I am not charging.
Keywords matched
immigrant Refugee visas visa