Speech #980098983

Amnesty International has amassed countless testimonies of violence and terror in El Salvador and the rest of Central America. Their investigations have shown repeatedly that those individuals who are relatives of victims. or who have condemned the abuses. face a special threat to their wellbeing. Additionally. those who have entered the U.S. illegally. been apprehended by the INS. and deported may well risk their lives by returning to El Salvador. This was precisely the case for Santana Chirino Amaya who was found tortured. murdered. and decapitated after he had been deported and returned to El Salvador. A companion. Bernardo Antonio Rivas. 14 years of age. suffered the same fate. In an interview with a former career military officer of the Salvadoran Army. Amnesty International learned that deportees faced a special threat upon their return to El Salvador and were frequently tortured before they were murdered. The civil war is now more protracted than ever. with no end to the violence in sight. The number of refugees residing in the United States is unknown. but estimated to be at least 60.000. In 1982. the INS granted only 65 Salvadorans political asylum and deported 2.118 to El Salvador. I find it difficult to believe that the INS can support so few asylum petitions. given the kind of evidence that has been presented to me. It is because I believe the evidence is so compelling that I support granting extended voluntary departure status to the Salvadorans who are in this country without proper documentation. This is not the first time that extended voluntary departure has been granted to the citizens of an entire nation. More importantly. however. if implemented this policy would be a signal that the refugees would eventually return to their country and not become permanent residents of the United States or a burden on our public assistance system. My support of the granting of extended voluntary departure stems from my firm conviction that refugees who return unwillingly to El Salvador face a special threat that the general population does not face. whether from the right or the left. The evidence that has been presented to me from a variety of sources indicates that this fear is well founded and that it justifies the same special status that was granted to oppressed people in the past. most notably the Ethiopians. Poles. and Afghans.