Speech #960244648

Senator. I repeated in the telegram the points I made during the hearing on April 17 that: First. the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees should be requested to offer assistance. and second. other countries. especially South and Latin American countries. should be persuaded to take a fair number of these refugees. To date. I have seen no significant results or initiatives by this administration in these two areas. Mr. President. the new law. "The Refugee Act of 1980" was tailormade for the current situation. Incredibly. President Carter refuses to exercise the clear authority that is provided to him under that law. Section 207(b) provides as follows: (b) If the President determines. after appropriate consultation. that (I) an unforeseen emergency refugee situation exists. (2) the admission of certain refugees in response to the emergency refugee situation is justified by grave humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the National interest. and (3) the admission to the United States of these refugees cannot be accomplished under subsection (a). the President may fix a number of refugees to be admitted to the United States during the succeeding period (not to exceed twelve months) in response to the emergency refugee situation and such admissions shall be allocated among refugees of special humanitarian concern to the United States in accordance with a determination made by the President after the appropriate consultation provided under this subsection. What can be more clearly stated? The law gives the President the authority to fix the number of refugees he seeks to admit and. after appropriate consultation with the Congress. may admit them as political refugees. This procedure is flexible enough to accommodate the process of determining who is a bona fide political refugee and those who may simply want to come to the United States to better themselves economically. In no case is the United States required to take all refugees who reach our shores. Section 207 of the law permits the President to separate those who have criminal records. diseases. psychiatric problems or persons who simply want to come here to better themselves from those who are here because "of persecution or a wellfounded fear of persecution." Mr. President. Jimmy Carter has not yet acted as he is permitted to do under the refugee law. Instead. he has proceded to engage in a series of halfsteps and administrative actions that have left everyone confused. including the American citizens. Federal and State officials. and even the Cuban refugees and their families. Because of the administrations lack of a firm refugee policy. the taxpayers are being called upon to support tens of thousands of Cubans who may never meet the requirement of being political refugees. Federal and State officials potentially responsible for taking care of these refugees do not know exactly what is expected of them. This situation is also the case for the voluntary agencies. All of these problems could have been avoided if the President had acted quickly and decisively under the Refugee Act. Mr. President. in my opinion. the following steps should be taken to resolve this problem: First. the President should insist that the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees assume the responsibility of placing these Cuban refugees in other countries. and enforcing agreements in connection therewith. Second. the President should make a determination on which refugees are "political refugees." and which are not and should be deported. and then consult with the Congress under the terms of the Refugee Act in regard to such a determination. Third. any Cubans that are determined not to be "political refugees" or persons who are found to be undesirable or who have come or may come solely for economic reasons should be deported forthwith. or returned to Cuba or to a third country which would agree to return such refugees to Cuba. Fourth. the Department of Justice should promptly prosecute any persons who have engaged or may engage in bringing Cuban refugees to the United States and have knowingly violated Federal laws or an Executive order in so doing. Mr. President.