Speech #860035009

Once here. they knew that we would never betray them to the oppressors from whom they had escaped. The upheavals of World War II made it possible for many of these people to escape the clutches of communism. Millions of displaced persons and refugees found temporary safety behind the lines of the advancing American armies. The United States. dedicated to the principle of human rights. could not in good conscience. send these victims back to the doom that is communism. Responding to their appeals for help. the Congress enacted the Displaced Persons Act. the Refugee Relief Act. and other laws to temper justice with mercy. so that those who fled to the United States would not have to fear that at some future time they would be forcibly returned to the lands where terror rules. It is true that a few of them. in desperation. managed to reach the United States without the formalities of proper papers. Others. who did enter through regular channels. subsequently suffered mental breakdowns which could be traced to the nightmare of Communist persecution which has been known to break the mind and spirit of human beings. Technically. they were still aliens. And. in the stilted language of the immigration laws. they were granted the dubious protection called "stay of deportation." In the Immigration Law of 1952. it was stated that: The Attorney General is authorized to withhold deportation of any alien within the United States to any country in which. in his opinion. the alien would be subject to physical persecution and for such period of time as he deems necessary for such reason. No one paid any attention to this section because it was inconceivable that communism would ever abandon force and terror as basic policy. But now. the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has notified a number of Poles in the categories I have referred to. that: Information available indicates a changed political situation in Poland necessitating reconsideration of the aliens application for stay of deportation. What changed political situation? The Immigration and Naturalization Service does not state. because it does not know. So it places the burden of proof on the alien in this country. The aliens are informed that they will be furnished a further opportunity to testify and submit any available evidence they may have. to support their claim of physical persecution if returned to Poland at this time. This strange aboutface in policy is fantastic. ludicrous. and heartless. It is demoralizing the refugees. and is arousing justified resentment among all fairminded Americans. The sincerity of the United States. and its longstanding reputation of protecting those who found asylum here. is at stake. What caused this switch. which now proposes to betray the promise of sanctuary. and hand the victims back to the Communists. and to the terrors of rehabilitation? Is it part of the new and flexible foreign policy of the United States. which. in the name of expediency. would conveniently ignore principles? Whatever the rationalization may be. it is both wrong and cruel. The American public will never sanction the use of freedomloving Polish refugees as instruments of international diplomacy. The Soviet record of broken pledges and of governing satellite nations by puppet regimes. is too well known to permit any wishful thinking on the part of the U.S. Government.