Speech #990003005

Mr. President. today I am introducing legislation to suspend the deportation of Salvadorans from the United States and to require the impartial General Accounting Office to study and report to Congress the living conditions and security of displaced Salvadorans in Central America. Many of us in Congress have been trying for the last 5 years to persuade the Department of Justice to stop the deportations of Salvadorans from the United States. Although Congress adopted a resolution In 1983 recommending that Salvadorans be granted extended voluntary departure [EVD] status in the United States. the Reagan administration has simply ignored it. In November 1983. Representative JOE MOAKLEY and I introduced legislation to require that the United States suspend the deportations. The Moakley bill was reported near the end of the last Congress by the House Immigration Subcommittee. The leadership of this body did not feel the issue to be important enough to schedule hearings on my bill. S.