Speech #900304620

President. in the meantime. the Department requested an opportunity to discuss with me "certain foreign policy implications which are inherent in this problem." and on August 29. 1967. I met with three of its representatives for nearly an hour. These spokesmen for the Department were quite encouraging about the prospects for establishing refugee offices in the Asia and Pacific areas. For nearly 10 months since the date of that meeting. I did not hear from the Department on this subject. Then. on June 20. 1968. I finally received a report on the situation from the Department. The Department wrote: It was our preliminary judgment that it would be desirable in our foreign policy interests and in keeping with public policy behind the amended Immigration and Nationality Act to provide for he processing of Chinese refugees in Hong Kong for conditional entry under seventh preference. However. because of three factors. the Department refused to budge and indicated that at least for the foreseeable future. no refugee offices will be opened in any nation of Asia or the Pacific. The Department contends that first. because the Immigration and Nationality Act imposes an annual limitation of 20.000 of visas and conditional entries for any single foreign state and 200 for a subquota area such as Hong Kong. second. because of the expectation that the number of visas to be issued to natives of China will reach the maximum limit of 20.000 in fiscal 1969. so that no visa numbers are expected to be available for seventh preference applicants born in China. and. third. because the small likelihood that seventh preference numbers would be available for qualified applicants in Hong Kong would have an "adverse public impact in the colony"no refugee offices would be opened in this critical area of the world. In other words. the Department is saying that it will continue to administer the Immigration and Nationality Act. as amended by the 1965 Reform Act. in a blatantly discriminatory wayfavoring entry of political refugees from Europe and the Middle East. to the total exclusion of such entrants from Asia and the Pacific. Mr. President.