Speech #970087052

Mr. President. one of the front page articles in yesterdays Washington Post heralded the new policy of the administration to begin intercepting ships on the high seas suspected of carrying illegal aliens bo the United States. As we all know. the illegal aliens this order is aimed at stopping are primarily Haitians. While we all should applaud a sincere effort to begin cracking down on illegal immigration into this country. a close look at the administrations total immigration policy discloses that the administration is more interested in looking tough than in actually being tough. There is a glaring inconsistency in the administrations program which every citizen in this country should be aware of because it will have a direct impact on our economy and society for years to come. The administration says that it will be intercepting ships which are carrying Haitians because they do not qualify for political asylum in this country. To qualify for political asylum. an alien must meet the same definition as a "refugee." which is an individual who is fleeing his or hir country because he or she has a wellfounded fear of persecution. According to the administration. Haitians are not fleeing persecution. they are only looking for a better standard of living and are in effect economic migrants. As the Office of Legal Counsel for the Department of Justice stated last month. "economic hardship itself. however. is not a basis for eligibility as a refugee under the Act." This should come as a surprise to no one because almost everyone agrees that the refugee and asylum laws which Congress passed last year were intended to provide refuge for the true freedom fighters of the world and were not intended to act as an international welfare program in disguise. However. the administration has given its own unique interpretation to this law which says that Haitians must abide by it but that hundreds of thousands of Indochinese economic migrants do not have to. According to the administrations immigration policy. if you are an economic migrant from Haiti. the United States will stop your boat on the high seas and forcibly return you to Haiti. But. if you are an economic migrant from Indochina the Federal Government will extend an invitation to resettle permanentzy in the United States. pay your way here and put you on the welfare roils for up to 3 years. Furthermore. if a country of first asylum in Southeast Asia attempts to adopt a policy of repatriating the econom:c migrants who are streaming into that particular country. a policy very similar to our own in regard to Haitians. the State Department expresses its strong disipproval. Mr. President. the claim that the United States has adopted a policy of admitting economic migrants from Indochina as refugees is no longer speculation. It has now been welldocumented by the press. by government officials who have firsthand knowledge of the program. and by congressional and executive factfinding missions to Southeast Asia. Yet in spite of all this. the Attorney General came to Congress last week and delivered the message that the administration intends to admit an additional 12J.000 Indochinese refugees in fiscal year 1982. And. even though his own Office of Legal Counsel says they must distinguish economic from poltical refugees. the Attorney General indicated that the administration probably would still consider all migrants from Laos. Cambodia. and Vietnam as refugees. The inconsistency of the administrations program is highlighted even more by the fact that Health and Human Services Secretary Schweiker believes there is not enough money in the budget for more than 95.000 refugees. Furthermore. the Senate Judiciary Committees Subcommittee on Immigration issued a report on September 21 which said that no more than 80.000 to 100.000 should be admitted in fiscal year 1982. It appears that the adm:nistration is more interested in getting headlines with its controversial interdictionatsea policy for Haitians than it is in developing a fair immigration policy which truly represents the best interest of the peoplE. who are now living in this country. I ask unanimous consent that a fact sheet which my office has prepared on the Indochinese refugee program be printed in the RECORD. The program follows: