Speech #870099537

Mr. President. I should like to say a word on the problem of the East German refugees. who are now flooding into West Berlin in increasingly large numbers. In the last 24 hours 1.741 East German refugees reached West Berlin. Since last Saturday noon alone over 5.000 have escaped to the free world in this way. Only 2 weeks ago the rate was about 1.100 per day. and the previous estimate of 300.000 for 1961 which was considered high. may have to be revised upward. This flood of refugees should be a strong element of confirmation of the free worlds position on Berlin. that Chairman Khrushchevs belligerency and rocket rattling have only created fear in the Communist bloc and an added incentive for people to leave it with a sense of far greater security. This is something of a tribute to the sobriety and selfcontained firmness with which the issue is being met by the United States and its principal allies in NATO. Here is something of a vote of confidence for the stability of Western Europe and for us a confirmation of our determination never to let the hope of freedom expire for the 100 million in the captive nations of the Baltic. central Europe. and the Balkans. However. here again we have a situation that always happens in a democracy. It is not enough. We have made no preparations under our immigration laws to meet the refugee influx. This preparation must at least be equal to the confidence of the refugees. The archaic and discriminatory immigration laws fall far short of the mark in this respect. In addition. we allow ourselves to be tied in knots in Congress by one or two committee chairmen who stand in the way. apparently. of Congress exercising its will in respect of refugee relief legislation. We had that experience with the Hungarian refugees. which showed that basic immigration law for admission of refugees is vital and that a crash program of paroling refugees into the United States is inadequate and unsatisfactory. Nevertheless. we have not yet passed any refugee relief act. No action has been taken even on the administrations bill. recently introduced by Senator FULBIIGHT in this body. to authorize additional funds to deal with emergency refugee situations and to participate in the work of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration. Nor was action taken on President Eisenhowers request for allowability of admissions of up to 60.000 refugees and escapees every year on a regulated basis. Indeed. we even have an influx of refugees from Cuba. and our arrangements there. too. are inadequate. We must have at this session a refugee relief act in the interest of the foreign policy of the United States. It is a fact that only when we have taken our fair share of refugees and escapees has there been any effective international action on this crucial program. That was true right after World War I: and in the 1950s. On both occasions we passed laws. and that situation very quickly was cleared up. The parole provisions of our immigration law were never intended to meet any such massive problem for refugees as is now faced. and hence are not satisfactory to meet it. We showed by the passage of the Displaced Persons Act right after World War II and in the Refugee Relief Act in the 1950s. what we could do. Once we did take the lead. the situation was cleared up satisfactorily by other countries. These were magnificent evidences of U.S. leadership.