Speech #860266622

Mr. President. I welcome the news that House Joint Resolution 397. which is a bill to enable the United States to participate in the resettlement of certain refugees. has been favorably reported by the Judiciary Committee. Under this bill. we commit ourselves to parole into the United States over the next 24month period 25 percent of the number of refugees admitted by other countries over the 30month period beginning July 1. 1959. and ending June 30. The bill provides that 500 of the refugees may be handicapped persons who. under ordinary circumstances might not be admissible but who can. with some assistance. become selfsupporting or are members of family units capable of becoming selfsupporting. The bill also provides for the admission of Dutch ethnic refugees compelled to flee from Indonesia in the wake of the nationalist revolution. The number of Dutch refugees to be admitted shall be equal to the immigration quota for the Netherlands for 2 years. Finally. the bill provides for the admission of 2.000 residents of the Azores left homeless by the terrible earthquake of several years ago. The prime credit for House Joint Resolution 397 belongs to Representative FRANCIS E. WALTER who is internationally known as the father of Displaced Persons Act and as the founder of the intergovernmental Committee for European Migration. The Judiciary Committee. under the distinguished Senator from Mississippi. also deserves a world of credit for the conscientous manner in which it considered and amended the bill. I am. of course. pleased that the revised version of House Joint Resolution 397 incorporates two of the proposals made in S. 3513. a refugee immigration bill which I introduced on May 10. In the original version of House Joint Resolution 397. the 25percent formula was equated against the number of refugees admitted by other countries over the 2year period commencing January 1. 1960. In my own bill. the period covered by the matching formula was dated back to July 1. 1959. which. as I have pointed out. is the opening day of World Refugee Year. This proposal has been adopted in the revised version of House Joint Resolution 397. This will have the effect of admitting at the most a few thousand more refugees to this country. I am especially pleased that the revised bill has accepted my proposal for the admittance of 500 handicapped refugees. One of the wonderful things about World Refugee Year was that nations which had not previously accepted handicapped refugees opened their doors to them and made special provisions to assist them in their rehabilitation. In fairness to the United States. it should be pointed out that over the years since the Displaced Persons Act. at least some hundreds and possibly several thousands of handicapped refugees have been admitted to our country. In every case. however. the strongest personal and voluntary agency sponsorship was required for such refugees and even then certain categories remained inadmissible. Under Public Law 85316 tubercular refugees who were spouses of refugees already in this country were ruled admissible. But the revised version of House Joint Resolution 397 marks the first time that refugee legislation has contained a clause providing for the admission of all handicapped refugees considered difficult to resettle by the United Nations High Commissionerwith the sole exception of institutional cases. and with the sole provision that the refugees admitted be capable of becoming selfsupporting or are members of selfsupporting family units. This is a modest bill. To be frank. I would have liked to see a bill of somewhat more generous scope. especially in view of our commitment to World Refugee Year. But I believe that House Joint Resolution 397 comes close to being the best that could realistically be hoped for. and I enthusiastically urge its passage. It will do much to alleviate the plight of the thousands of refugees who are homeless today because they loved freedom enough to sacrifice everything they possessed for it.