Mr. Speaker. on Saturday. May 10. 1975. 1 toured the Southeast Asian refugee area within the Marine Corps base at Camp Pendleton. Calif. Marine Corps Gen. Paul Graham and AID Senior Coordinator William Wild are in charge of the refugee operations at the base. They are doing an excellent job and are to be commended. There are 18.200 refugees currently at the base. They are divided into camps of between 1.000 and 3.000 persons each. With 4 days advance warning and only 20 days total operating time. General Graham and Mr. Wild have arranged for housing. clothing. food. medicine. transportation. bedding. and clerical processing for everyone. As emotionally difficult as the experience has been for the refugees and as logistically impossible as our aiding efforts first appeared. the whole operation is proceding in a clean. orderly. andunder the circumstancespleasant manner. The really thorny aspect of the refugee question is who pays and how? In these times of unemployment and rampant inflation. Americans have a right to be fearful about job displacement and further inflationary drains on tax revenues. While America as a nation of immigrants and refugees has a clear responsibility and mission to help these people. it is incumbent on the Federal Government to ease them into our society with the least social and economic disruption. The Government cannot allow large numbers of refugees to be dumped into areas of high unemployment or marginal economic stability. Further. no State or locality should have to pay for the handling of these refugees. This is a Federal matter. But. how the Government pays is terribly important. Two bills secheduled for consideration tomorrow. the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act and the refugee assistance appropriations. propose to give new funding to pay for the refugee assistance. Where are those funds coming from? What is the revenue source?
Keywords matched
immigrants Refugee refugee refugees