Speech #970225635

Mr. President. before we conclude our debate on immigration issues. I want to note some immigration problems confronting some Americans and permanent residents at the American University of Beirut. Within just the past 10 weeks. when AUB has faced so many other trials. it also has been confronted with a threat to its faculty by the regulations of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. As an American university serving the Middle East. AUB places high value on a faculty which is rooted both in the American educational tradition and in the Middle Eastern cultural milieu. This balance is achieved by maintaining a significant number of faculty members who are Middle Easterners who have earned their advanced degrees in the United States and who have major employment experience here as well. Many of these individuals have strengthened their U.S. ties even further by obtaining permanent resident status or by becoming naturalized citizens. For those Middle Eastern faculty members who are not already naturalized citizens when they leave the United States to teach and conduct research at AUB. two problems arise: First. they are prevented. by their necessary absence from the United States. from meeting the continuous residency requirement and therefore becoming eligible for naturalization. and Second. they risk forfeiting. through their extended absences. the very resident alien status which provides their strong cultural link to the United States and assures them the possibility of applying for citizenship at a later date. Some 50 or 60 members of AUBs faculty. or approximately 12 percent. are confronted with these problems. This poses a serious threat to the university since these individuals ties to the United States are sufficiently strong that they will resign their professorships to return to the States rather than abandon their U.S. residency and the prospect of citizensh . On May 23 of this year. Dr. Khaiil Abu Feisal. chief of staff of American University Hospital. was required by immigration officials at New Yorks John P. Kennedy Airport to forfeit his green card. Dr. Abu Feisal had come here to recruit new medical faculty.