Mr. President. I have today joined as a cosponsor of S. 1872. a bill introduced by Senator CASE of New Jersey. to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act so as to provide 30.000 refugee visas to Soviet Jews wishing to come to this country. Similar legislation has been introduced in the House by Congressman KOCH of New York. While it is not expected at this time that such a large number of Soviet Jews will either receive exit permits from the Soviet Union or choose to come to this country instead of Israel. it is the intention of the sponsors of this bill to remove all doubt and all possible impediments to a fair share coming here. Present law limits the number of political refugees who can be admitted from the Soviet bloc annually to 10.200. and we want to make it perfectly clear that we can and will admit more as necessary. It should also be pointed out that even in the absence of this legislation. the Attorney General has the discretion. under section 212(d) (5) of the act to parole into this country an unlimited number of political refugees. Indeed. prior to the passage of the 1965 act which first established quotas for refugees. section 212 (d) (5) was used to admit tens of thousands of refugees particularly Hungarians and Chinese. Since 1965 it has been used to admit large numbers of Cubans and Czechs. I have no doubt that should an emergency arise before this act can be passed. the Attorney General would use his power of parole for the benefit of Soviet Jews. But because I believe that the intention of Congress should be made clear and a certain and orderly means of issuing visas provided. I urge passage of this bill. The Soviets are denying to their citizens of Jewish faith. fundamental religious and cultural rights which are guaranteed them by Soviet law itself.
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Immigration refugee visas refugees