Speech #980277131

Mr. President. on May 22. 1984. I joined Senator DECONCINI and others as a cosponsor of S. 2131. a bill to extend voluntary departure status to Salvadoran refugees. pending a complete investigation into the conditions of Salvadoran refugees and the circumstances of their return to El Salvador. Serious questions have been raised about the conditions for refugees in El Salvador and in other Central American countries. It is estimated that 40.000 civilians have been killed since the outbreak of fighting in 1980. A recent U.S./AID study estimates that as many as 1 million Salvadorans are now displaced within their own country. The Salvadoran Government relief agency. CONADES. is now serving only some 300.000 of these intenial refugees. The election of Jose Napoleon Duarte to the Presidency of El Salvador has given us all hope that human rights abuses and random killing of civilians will be brought under control. For those refugees who move to the neighboring countries of Honduras and Mexico. there remaina great deal of uncertainty as to their safety in the refugee camps as there is ever present friction between the Salvadoran refugees and the people of the host countries. It is not unexpected that people faced with this situation would seek security in the United States. The Salvadoran population in the United States is estimated to be between 200.000 and 300.000. Here in the United States they live in constant fear of apprehension and deportation back to El Salvador. Although the Congress has expressed its sense that Salvadorans should not be deported back to the dangerous conditions which face them upon return. and that the President has signed the resolution into law. the administration has not seen fit to grant a status known as extended voluntary departure to Salvadorans now in the United States. Extended voluntary departure status is a discretionary status usually granted on a group basis to people who temporarily cannot return home for fear of a lifethreatening situation. Unlike political asylum. extended voluntary departure status is usually granted for 6month intervals and is lifted when it becomes reasonably safe to return.