Speech #890120700

If they meet all of the qualifications and violate none of the exclusionary provisions contained in the present statute. these immediate relatives will be able to join their American kinsmen promptly. Second. four of the eight preference categories. including the first two. are assigned to other qualified relatives of citizens and permanent resident aliens. Third. while relative immigrants must still furnish proof that they will not become public charges. they are not subject to the new labor controls applicable to other types of immigrants. The new labor controls. I think. constitute another distinct improvement over the original bill and. indeed. the present law itself. This bill provides that no immigrant will be granted a visa until the Secretary of Labor has made an affirmative finding that his presence in this country will not deprive an American worker for a job and will not impair the American wage structure or other working conditions. This mandate applies to all Western Hemisphere immigrantsexcept Immediate relative immigrantsand to professional workers. skilled workers. unskilled workers. and all workers in the nonpreference category. Moreover. the Secretary of Labor must make this finding on an individual immigrant basis and must report his findings regularly to the Congress. Although some fear has been expressed that the Secretarys power is too broad and too flexible. I am encouraged to believe that. in the face of a continuing congressional oversight. the Secretary will use his power prudently. This bill makes a significant improvement in the refugee program. Heretofore. under the Fair Share Refugee Act. the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees had authority to determine eligibility qualifications for refugee status. This bill repeals that act. spells out our own definition of a refugee. commits to the President power to authorize the conditional entry of up to 10.200 refugees and reserves to the Congress the power to review the case history of every individual refugee he admits. Under the new definition. the applicant must submit to an examination by an American immigration official in a nonCommunist country. He must satisfy the official that he has fled from a Communistdominated country or some country in the Middle East because of persecution or fear of persecution on account of race. religion. or political opinion. that for that reason he is unable or unwilling to return to such country. and that he is not a national of the country in which he files his application. This change In the refugee program involves a change in the manner in which the parole provisions of the present law have been administered. When originally written. the parole provisions were designed to enable the Attorney General to give temporary sanctuary to individuals caught in isolated personal crises. Over the years. the Attorney General. by interpretation. has stretched the parole provisions far beyond their intended boundaries to admit large groups. The language of the new bill. which for esthetic and psychological reasons changes the word "parole" to "conditional entry." restores the original intent of the law. H.R. 2580 as amended also deals with a problem which has plagued consular officers for many years but with increasing frequency in recent years. Those who represent themselves as nonimmigrants and apply for student and visitor visas do not always honestly intend to remain in the United States only temporarily. This bill gives the consular officer. uncertain about the applicants bona fides. the power to require him to post a compliance bond. Except for the repeal of epilepsy as a ground for exclusion and changing the word "feebleminded"-which has no precise medical definitionto "mentally retarded." the exclusionary provisions of the present law are left intact.