Speech #980090384

Brutus has lived in the United States for the past 10 years. He has been a professor of African and English literature at Northwestern University for many of those years. Why. then. is he facing potential deportation? Mr. Speaker. Dennis Brutus could be deported because of a technical violation of the immigration statutes. He originally held a British passport. and it was with this document that he obtained his visa. which granted him permission to work here. But when Zimbabwe became an independent nation in 1980. Mr. Brutus passport was revoked. Zimbabwe issued a new one. but he was late in applying for the extension of his visa here. Then his file was misplaced for 6 months. Thus. when he continued to work at Northwestern University. he violated a law that forbids employment of an alien with an expired visa. Despite the unusual circumstances. the State Department is zealously pursuing action against Mr. Brutus. He has been told by these authorities that he could return to Great Britain. where he lived and worked after he left Africa in 1966. The British authorities. however. present a different picture: They advised him that his immigration rights have lapsed in Britain because he failed to live there for 2 years. Furthermore. the State Department has indicated that he is excludable from the United States under the McCarranWalters Act. but has refused to tell Mr. Brutus why he has been judged excludable.