Speech #1000080231

Chairman. I believe our legislation is a more appropriate alternative to nationspecific legislation such as H.R. 618. We fill a gap between current immigration law and the Refugee Act of 1980. We provide rational. freestanding legislative criteria based on the existence of civil strife. environmental catastrophes. along with humanitarian considerations to allow foreign nationals to remain here for temporary refuge until conditions in their respective countries improve. As you know. Mr. Chairman. the executive branch now has the authority to grant "extended voluntary departure" [EVD] to "stay" deportation of nationals from certain countries when conditions in their home country present a hazard to the returning alien. However. no criteria. statutory or otherwise. currently exist which specifies when extended voluntary departure can be granted and why certain countries qualify. H.R. 2922 would provide this criteria. Just as the Refugee Act replaced the ad hoc consultations approach by establishing a formal and orderly process by which we accept refugees. I believe the same orderly statutory process is needed for authorizing temporary refuge. We have the time to act within the framework of existing law to conditions in El Salvador. Our response should not be to legislate on exceptions to the Immigration Reform and Control Act for one or two countries. Rather. it should be to follow the longstanding policy with respect to immigration law. Under current law. there are numerous examples where the statutory framework establishes the criteria under which the administration exercises its discretion to admit foreign nationals into the United States. Our preference system defines categories of aliens Congress has decided should be considered as immigrants. The consular officer in the field reviews the applications for immigrant visas. while the INS officer at ports of entry determines admissibility. The Refugee Act of 1980 developed an orderly process for admitting "refugees"-defined as those aliens who have a "wellfounded fear of persecution." It is the INS officer in foreign countries who determines who qualifies under the priorities established by Congress. Our law also provides for admission by asylum into the United States. should a foreign national establish that he faces a "wellfounded fear of persecution" upon return to his own country. The Department of Justice reviews these asylum applications and makes the necessary determinations on each case. Similarly. enactment of H.R. 2922 would establish a statutory framework to provide the "authorization to remain temporarily." The Attorney General would have the discretion to grant such status based on the criteria found in the bill. We would be honoring the traditional balance of statutory law and executive discretion. Mr. Chairman. all majority members of the Immigration Subcommittee and the gentleman from Massachusetts . have expressed the desire to work with us in perfecting H.R. 2922. We welcome this bipartisan approach. In the meantime. we should reject H.R. 618.