Speech #970086704

Mr. Speaker. yesterday. the House Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing on President Reagans proposed refugee admissions for the coming fiscal year. The President has proposed 173.000 refugees be admitted. and is now consulting with Congress before making a final determination. First. I want to express my displeasure at the absence of a Cabinetlevel official at our hearing yesterday. The committee is engaged in the process of consultation leading to decisions affecting the lives of tens of thousands of refugees. the lives of millions of Americans. and involving the expenditure of billions of tax dollars. Yet. and with all due respect to the witness we had. the committee did not have the benefit of the thinking of any officer of the executive branch at the policymaking level. Especially in the absence of a coordinator for refugee affairsa slot not yet filled nor even certain to be filledthe committee needs even more the observations of the Attorney General or the Secretary of State or the Secretary of Health and Human Services. I want the consultation process to work. but it will not work if the committee does not have the policymakers before it. Second. I want to review briefly for my colleagues the activities the Subcommittee on Immigration. Refugees. and International Law. which I have the privilege of chairing. undertook in preparation for these consultations. We traveled to southern California in April to examine the impact of refugee resettlement there. and issued a major report which I hope my colleagues will have a chance to read. Last month. with several of our colleagues on the Judiciary Committee. the subcommittee spent 12 days in Southeast Asia and Western Europe examining the refugee camps and discussing the problems with refugee experts and government officials. A formal report of our trip. and findings and recommendations deriving from it. will be issued next month. The Immigration Subcommittee has held 3 days of hearings this month on all aspects of the refugee program. including questions not ever examined carefully before. such as the adequacy of the medical screening of refugees. The subcommittee last spring held 7 days of hearings on various immigration and refugee topics to provide background on this manyfaceted subject. Finally. your subcommittee has held informal talks and briefings. almost beyond count. to gain a closer purchase on the subject and on the nature and extent of the responsibilityif. indeed. there is anyto accept refugees for resettlement in the United States. In sum. the subcommittee has spent a tremendous amount of time studying these issues. and I want to thank and commend my six subcommittee colleagues for their hard work. It is a privilege and an honor to work with these outstanding people and our excellent staff. Now let me make a few specific comments on the Presidents recommendations of refugee admissions for fiscal year 1982. I believe the number of admissions the President has initially recommended is too high. The overall number should be closer to 120.000 to 125.000 rather than the 173.000 he has recommended. Specifically. based on the information the subcommittee has gathered. my personal view is that the United States should admit approximately 80.000 Indochinese during the next fiscal year rather than the 120.000 recommended by the President. I make this recommendation in light of the dramatic decline in the numbers of Indochinese now resident in camps in first asylum countries who wish to be resettled in third countries. In addition. total flows of refugees into first asylum countries of Southeast Asiaseeking temporary harbor or seeking resettlementhave fallen tremendously. Last month. for the first time since the Vietnam war ended in 1975. no boat people from Vietnam arrived in Thailand. I also believe the U.S. admissions should be reduced in order that refugee agencies. such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. can internationalize resettlement. This year. the United States is once again taking more than twothirds of all Indochinese refugees being resettled. Internationalization is a failure. Perhaps if the United States adopts a more realistic admissions policy. other countries will respond to moral and international pressure to take more refugees than they are taking now. So long as the United States does it all. the other nations feel no such pressure. My final reason for believing the numbers need to be reduced is that domestic resettlement is not succeeding. Over 65 percent of Indochinese refugees receive welfare. State. county. and local government officials have dramatized to the subcommittee that their localities are being overwhelmed by the financial. social. housing. and law enforcement stresses brought