Speech #870144088

Mr. President. I introduce for appropriate reference. a bill to render Cuban refugees eligible for adjustment of their immigration status to that of persons admitted for permanent residence. The effect of this measure is to avoid a technical requirement in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 that natives of countries contiguous to the United States or of adjacent islands. including Cuba. who enter this countrY on a nonpermanent basis. must leave the United States and reenter in order to be eligible for permanent residence status. While this requirement may have some justification in the case of natives of such countries and islands who first enter the United States on a normal. casual basis and then elect to apply for permanent residence. it obviously has no justification in the case of the refugees from the Communistdominated government of Fidel Castro. Their entry into the United States was flight to a sanctuary and anything but casual. To require those of the refugees who elect to apply for permanent residence to leave the country in order to reenter as permanent residents is a meaningless requirement. particularly in view of the fact that at the same time we have recognized their grave financial plight and are attempting to alleviate it with economic and other aid. We recently reaffirmed our belief in the aid program by the unanimous passage of H.R. 8291. which is now in conference. The bill I am now introducing defines "Cuban refugees" by reference to this already activated program under the Mutual Security Act of 1954. under which the Department of Health. Education. and Welfare has registered as refugees approximately 50.000 of the 136.000 nonnaturalized Cubans in the United States. This is not the first time that Congress will have xecognized and alleviated the special immigration problems created by the imperative need for the United States to remain a sanctuary for those who flee from Communist tyranny. Public Law 85559. enacted in 1958 to overcome a different technical difficulty posed by refugees from the Hungarian revolution. is a precedent. The problem in the present case is created by the fact that the Communist world has spread its influence almost to our border. I hope that this measure can be adopted speedily. not only as a humane adjustment for the refugees themselves. but also as an example to the world of the ability of free institutions to react promptly and effectively to real need.