Congress has spoken with forceful unanimity on this matter. Last year. shortly before the ReaganGorbachev summit. we wrote to the President urging him to use "every available means." including the arms control negotiations talks with the Soviets. to promote the cause of freedom for Soviet Jews. We also enacted legislation which calls upon the Soviet Union to "allow thousands of Jews who wish to emigrate. or to be repatriated to their homeland. and who have requested exit permits to leave the U.S.S.R. this year." and to pledge to deal expeditiously with future requests. We have spoken. but our pleas have gone unheeded. Regrettably. the Soviet Union has continued its repressive policies. Jewish emigration remains only a trickle- a low of 47 in March and merely 1.140 during all of 1985. The new leadership seems firmly commited to the old policies of denying its citizens the basic human rights of religious practice and freedom of emigration. The freeing of Anatoly Shcharansky proved to be a singular event. We have not yet been able to celebrate the longsought release of Andrei Sakharov.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration