Speech #980252752

Mr. Speaker. last week the House appointed members to the conference committee on H.R. 1510. the SimpsonMazzoli immigration bill. There are many advantages to such legislation. but I would caution my colleagues that we achieve nothing if we allow ourselves to ignore the plight of political refugees by confusing political and humanitarian questions with an attempt to control legal and illegal immigration. Included in the House version of this bill is sense of the Congress language that the United States should grant extended voluntary departure to Salvadoran refugees who have fled here to escape the unrelenting violence in their homeland. There is also legislation pending before the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration which would suspend deportation of Salvadorans until such time as the Congress determined El Salvador to be safe enough for their return. Both of these initiatives represent the only fair and thoughtful response the United States could take in the face of a rush of refugees fleeing danger. a response that we have taken in the past for refugees from Poland. Nicaragua and other nations in turmoil. Unfortunately. refugee status is increasingly becoming victim to the political climate. In the case of Salvadorans. the administration refuses to recognize the danger in El Salvador and so maintains that Salvadorans have no right to extended voluntary departure. In an oped from the Wall Street Journal of August 28. Doug Bandow outlines the problems and contradictions within this posture. I commend the article to the attention of my colleagues: SnsKINo THE HoPEs oF POLITIcAL REFUGEES (By Doug Bandow) President Reagan concluded his acceptance speech last Thursday night with a moving reminder of our nations "golden door." Beside it. he said. the Statue of Libertys torch has been "lighting the way to freedom for 17 million new Americans." Yet as tens of thousands of people around the world flee their repressive and strifetorn homelands every year and request po-