Speech #970134423

Mr. President. at this time I would like to introduce two bills relating to this countrys immigration and refugee policy. The first bill. Mr. President. has to do with the provision of consultation process with local and State governments from areas that are impacted by refugee settlement activities of the Federal Government. The distinguished Senator from Florida . the distinguished Senator from Virginia . and the distinguished Senator from Oregon join me as original cosponsors of this particular legislation. Mr. President. the Refugee Act of 1980 created one of the biggest loopholes in our immigration laws. It tripled the statutory yearly quota for refugees from 17.400 to 50.000 and gave the President the authority to admit an unlimited number above the 50.000 level. At the time the bill passed. some predicted that this authority to admit an unlimited number of refugees would be exploited and manipulated. and our worst fears in this regard have come true. During the first year of the act. 235.000 refugees were admitted. In fiscal year 1981 the attempt to admit 217.000 fell short only because dedicated INS officials refused to circumvent the definition of "refugee." as the U.S. Attorney General and the Secretary of State wanted to do. Under an agreement reached between the two. all people fleeing Vietnam. Cambodia. and Laos were to be presumed to be refugees. This automatically classified thousands of fishermen. farmers and others who have no fear of persecution as refugees and cleared the way for them to be resettled in the United States. Fortunately. this attempt to circumvent the refugee law was made public and the Attorney General had to retreat from his position. Even though the INS officials were able to curb the flow. 154.000 refugees were admitted in fiscal year 1981. Under the Refugee Act of 1980. the only power the Congress has to control this unlimited authority of the President is the consultation process. Under this system. the President is merely required to consult with both Judiciary Committees before the beginning of each fiscal year regarding the number of refugees he intends to admit. Once he has done this. there is no formally established method for Congress to express its disapproval of his plan. This was clearly brought to light during the most recent consultations. The administration notified the Judiciary Committees at hearings that it intended to admit 140.000 refugees in fiscal year 1982. In response to this announcement. Senators THURMOND. SIMPSON. KENNEDY. and BIDEN sent a letter to the President recommending that no more than 125.000 be admitted. At the same time. the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Immigration sent a letter recommending no more than 120.000. The administration made no attempt to compromise on the issue and still stands by its plans to admit 140.000 during this fiscal year. It should be noted that the difference in the two admission levels focused on the Indochinese program where it had already been established that a substantial number of the people are economic migrants and are not refugees fleeing persecution. At the same time the administration was ignoring the recommendations of the Judiciary Committees. it was pursuing an interesting policy in regard to appropriations for refugee programs. Even though the number of admissions had been reduced a little less than 10 percent from the fiscal year 1981 level. the funding for the extensive assistance programs refugees qualify for was cut by over 20 percent in the Senate. and the House went $20 million below this figure. The result of this policy is that the Department of State has managed to keep the admission levels up while more of the expense of providing for the refugees with welfare assistance must fall upon the State and local governments. State and local governments have seen this shift of responsibility coming for some time and have felt increasingly frustrated because they were unable to have any formal input into the decisionmaking process that is primarily centered in the Department of State. In July 1981 a National Association of Counties task force issued its report on refugees. aliens and migrants. One of its policy positions called for "greater coordination and consultation with local elected officials on the placement of refugees into communities." During the annual meeting of the National League of Cities last month. a resolution was passed calling for direct involvement of the cities in the refugee resettlement decisionmaking process. The frustration and concern of the local governments is also being felt by State officials. Gov. Victor Atiybh of Oregon wrote a letter to the President on August 10. 1981. in which he expressed these feelings very clearly. He stated in his letter: Id like to offer some comments about the refugee situation in Oregon and proposed federal policy and funding for next year. Oregon has three times Its per capita share of refugees. Oregons unemployment rate is nearly 10 percent. The refugee unemployment rate is about 50 percent. Seventy percent of the 300400 monthly arrivals to Oregon are illiterate in their own language. Twothirds of the refugees in Oregon are dependent on public assistance. Yet despite all this. we have been assured that next years budget for improving refugee selfsufficiency will be reduced considerably while the refugee population in the state will increase by another 25 percent. The refugee population of Oregon is controlled entirely by the federal government. Local officials are also saying similar things. A Wall Street Journal article entitled "Refugee Influx to Some Areas Straining Budgets. Good Will" said that: Adding to the frustration Is a feeling that a few local governments have been saddled with the wards of U.S. foreign policy. and that other cities and states lack sympathy. "We dont have any leverage." says Diane Ahrens. a Ramsey County. Minn.. commissioner. The bill I am introducing today would help restore balance to the refugee program. It would give State and local governments. which are being forced to shoulder the increasing social and economic burdens created by the rising numbers of refugees. a voice in the decisionmaking process. To date they have been virtually frozen out of this process by a Department of State which wants to preserve its dominance for vague foreign policy reasons. This can no longer be permitted in light of the new policy of shifting more responsibility back to the State and local governments. Mr. President. when we look at the unfortunate situation that has now developed in Poland. and we recall that history will reflect that it has been the U.S. policy in similar situations in the past to expect that we will have another flow of refugees. it makes it more important than ever that we now have the Federal Government. before they make a policy decision. before they decide upon how many this country may take and where they might be located. consult with the local and State officials in those areas that will have to bear the burden of an influx of new citizens who will need special attention and special help. at least in the early years of their residence in this country. This guarantee of input would be accomplished by .requiring that the President consult with the State and local governments which represent primary areas of refugee resettlement in the same way that he does so with the Judiciary Committees. This would give the State and local governments advance information regarding the impact of resettlement and allow them time to respond before the final decision is made. It would also assure that they would be allowed to participate in the public hearings which are required so that they can fully express their concern and make appropriate recommendations to the Congress. Mr. President. the U.S. refugee assistance programs are costing American taxpayers over $2 billion a year. There is clear and convincing evidence that the refugee resettlement program has expanded significantly beyond the intent of Congress and that for various reasons neither this administration nor the previous one has been able to get it under control. I believe that Congress can do this job if we establish the appropriate procedure. I ask unanimous consent that the article from the Wall Street Journal and another from the Washington Post entitled "Cutback in Refugee Aid Angers Westerners" be printed in the RECORD.