Speech #930020062

Mr. President. will not be intimidated or deterred from our attachment to individual liberty. Freedom of emigration. in this. a nation of immigrants. is an American issue. I would not be in this Chamber today if Norway. the country of my parents birth. had practiced the sort of emigration policy that the Soviet Union has today. Nothing in the present amendment would prohibit any American businessman or any agency of the U.S. Government from buying from or selling to the Soviet Union. All that is at issue is whether we are to extend trade concessions to the Soviets. whether we are to allow them most favored entry to our markets. whether we are to finance their economic development. guarantee investments in their economy. subsidize their interest rates. And on this issue the sentiment of the Congress is clear: Nearly threefourths of the Senate and an overwhelming majority of the House are saying: "No! Not so long as you defy the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by denying your citizens the opportunity to emigrate." Mr. President. one might well ask why we are moving to secure the right to free emigration when there are so many other fundamental liberties that continue to be denied behind the Iron Curtain. We believe that there is a unique international quality about the right of free emigrationfor the individuals involved may be Soviet citizens today. but they wish to become citizens of other nations tomorrowcitizens free to live their lives according to the values and laws of those nations. Moreover. the right and opportunity to emigrate. unlike the other freedoms we take for granted in the West. offers a kind of ultimate relief. No matter what the cause of his desire to emigratewhether it be for the right to worship or to dissent. to publish or speak. to read or write or listen -to what they please. all of these and any of them can be realized by emigrating. Of freedoms. the right to emigrate is first among equals. Mr. President. it is a fact of history that. in their despair. thousands of people who wish only to emigrate have appealed to us for help. Those who have made their appeals public have often incurred great risk in doing so. and all have placed their hope and their trust in our response. We Americans. immigrants ourselves. have stood before the world as the symbol of free men. Our own tradition and the course of history have placed upon us a most awesome responsibility. and our own economic and technological advantages have now given us a unique opportunity to help secure a basic human right for those who are already risking everything in its pursuit. Our action today insures that the Senate will rise to that opportunity.