Speech #940084990

My meeting with Mr. Singer provided me with no new information to make me change my original position that the State Department had been engaging in a form of censorship in their revocation actions. By means of a brief background. the State Department relies on an archaic and seldom used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act to deny these visa requests. The provision. section 212 (a) of the act. bars aliens from admission who advocate the overthrow of the U.S. Government by force. As I will prove in this and my subsequent reports. this argument is specious when one considers the individuals who were applying for these visas included two of the foremost architects of the truce which currently prevails in Northern Ireland. The Subcommittee on Immigration of the House Judiciary Committee has begun hearings into this question and I hope to have the opportunity to present my findings to them so together we can determine why our State Department is engaging in these practices which seems to fly in the face of what Americans consider to be due process under the law. My first report will deal with two interviews I held with Irish leaders whose visas were revoked by the U.S. State Department. The first individual was Mrs. Maire Drumm. vice president of Sinn Fein. This woman was actively involved in many aspects of humanitarian work in Northern Ireland. including assisting refugees who were displaced during some of the periods of violence which have occurred in Northern Ireland. She applied for a visa on four different occasions and was denied each time. Allow me to recount the circumstances behind these denials. In 1971. after her release from internment without charge. she applied for a visitors visa to come to America to help celebrate her 25th wedding anniversary. She was denied despite the fact that she had given U.S. authorities explicit assurances that she did not intend to engage in any political activities while in the United States. In 1972 she reapplied and both she and her husband were turned down for reasons which were never made clear to her.