Speech #990061608

I thank my friend for yielding. and if the gentleman needs more time. I will yield when I have the time. Let me just say that the gentleman understood my remarks. in part. and perhaps the gentleman from Kentucky was not lucid enough In the other part to make his point clearly. and that is that it is not so much that the presence of any kind of economic or military assistance will create refugee status. What the gentleman from Kentucky has been wrestling with for now 6 years is the fact that when you change the texture of the conflict from one in which some people might be leaving random violence or where some people might be leaving specific acts of persecution. you change whether they are economic migrants moving for a better life or whether they are actually refugees seeking asylum. And I believe that when our fingerprintsand I use that term againgo into that conflict. it suggest. to me. that from henceforth those who evaluate the status of the individual person seeking relief from living in that area. they are going to say. "Look. I am now seeking relief from persecution. I am entitled to refugee status." And. of course. the gentleman. who has been my ally In these many struggles. knows we have in the United States some 800.000 refugees from Indochina settled in the last 10 years. and it seems to me that we should be very careful. very circumspect. in taking any action. particularly one that everyone admits did not have hearings. has not been subject to national debate. before we make this very fundamental step. before we put an American character on this activity. I think that is the difference in our positions.