Mr. Speaker. the plight of Chilean refugees has been a matter of concern to me and other members of Congress since the overthrow of the Allende government last September. Three months ago. I wrote to the State Department inquiring whether parole arrangements have been instituted permitting the Attorney General and the State Department to waive certain immigration requirements for Chilean refugees seeking asylum in the United States. In July. I addressed a second letter to the State Department. requesting additional details concerning the granting of visas to Chilean refugees. The replies to my letters indicate that the United States has regrettably failed to meet the challenge with a compassionate response. Of the 150 applications for parole received by the United States. only 25 have been approved for resettlement in the United States. Applications for parole were only accepted from foreign refugees in Chile. not from actual Chilean citizens. apparently. the U.S. embassy in Santiago has not received any applications for asylum since September 11. 1973. What this means is that the United States hostile attitude toward these refugees has permeated the refugees consciousness so that they are turning to other countries for asylum. The United States bears some responsibility for the situation in Chile. and even if that were not so. our tradition of accepting refugees compels us to do far more than we are doing at present. The correspondence follows:
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immigration visas seeking asylum refugees