Speech #960244201

As of today he either is not getting the right advice. or isnt listening to it. Mr. Speaker. the Congress. particularly the Judiciary Committee. has been considering refugee legislation for several years. On December 20. 1979. this House passed our version of the Refugee Act and after conference with the Senate. on March 4 of this year. a conference report was adopted by a vote of 207 to 192. Included in that act are several provisions which relate directly to the situation we find ourselves now with respect to the Cubans which I wish to bring to the attention of this House. First. the definition of refugee was greatly expanded from the law existing prior to this act to include persons either outside or inside of their own country who fear persecution because of race. religion. nationality. membership in a particular social group. or political opinion. The provision to include persons within their own country as possible refugees. goes beyond the United Nations Protocol on Refugees to which we are a signatory. It was inserted in the bill specifically to cover situations. such as the one that faced us in 1975 in Vietnam. where persons were escaping from their own coun try and were coming directly to the United States. As you recall. people came at that time directly from Saigon to Guam and would not have fit the traditional definition of refugeethat is a person outside his own country. Therefore. part B of the definition was included to cover persons within their own country who are nevertheless in fear of persecution if they remain. As I have pointed out. the law also requires consultation with the Congress for admissions of refugees above 50.000 per fiscal year. and in the case of all unforseen emergency refugee situationsa category which describes the one with which we are faced today. Because the Refugee Act went into effect in the middle of a fiscal year. a consultation was held with respect to the foreseeable refugee admissions for the balance of fiscal year 1980. On April 30 of this year. representatives of the administration came before the House Judiciary Committee and discussed the plans for the admissions of approximately 230.000 refugees during fiscal year 1980. including 158.000 Indochinese. 33.000 Soviet Jews. and 19.000 Cubans. This was the total number of Cuban refugees proposed to be admitted by the administration during fiscal year 1980. as of April 30. That number included 3.500 Cubans of the 10.000 or so Cubans who were on the grounds of the Peruvian Embassy when Castro announced that Cubans could leave their country. Other than the consultation with me by phone in Norway. and with other members of the Judiciary regarding the admission of 3.500 Cubans who sought asylum in the Peruvian Embassy in Havana. and later at the April 30 hearing. no consultation has been held or proposed by the administration to deal with the huge influx of Cuban refugees. The administration is considering these Cuban nationals to be applicants for asylum. I notice that interim regulations for asylum were just published in the Federal Register on Monday.