Speech #1000080246

Mr. Chairman. I strongly oppose the passage of H.R. 618. first because. as I have already stated. this legislation is totally unnecessary. but second. because it really establishes a dangerous precedent not only because it conflicts with the Refugee Act passed by Congress in 1980 but because it also undermines our new immigration reform bill passed by this Congress last year. As the Members know. my opposition to this legislation is also shared by the Department of Justice and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. In addition. all of the Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee. as well as the chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee. voted against this bill when it was ordered reported by the Judiciary Committee. Congress passed the Refugee Act of 1980 to supplant the previous pattern of nationspecific administrative determinations. It set up a system under which any person. regardless of origin. can apply for and receive individual consideration of the merits of his or her claim and receive individual consideration. That is already a method recognized by the law and it totally. I think. negates the necessity of this bill. Under the RefugeeAct of 1984. it would serve as the exclusive available remedy for individuals seeking protection from- lifethreatening political persecution. As the gentleman from Massachusetts has already admitted. this bill is really not focused on lifethreatening situations but. rather. situations where there is civil strife. H.R. 618 would congressionally grant EVD status and suspend deportation of all Salvadorans and Nicaraguans now in the United States until the GAO report determining political conditions in El Salvador and Nicaragua is completed. As I stated earlier. we saw in a report in May of this last year that it is the GAOs position that that is an undeterminable issue. Yet somehow we think that the expenditure of an additional $500.000 to $750.000 would make what was previously undeterminable now determinable. For Salvadorans. evidence underscores my contention that the vast majority are not refugees. according to the strict United States and United Nations definitions. Rather. they are economic immigrants. Those Salvadorans seeking political asylum. that is. those who can prove their lives are endangered. can already apply for asylum in the United States. For the last 30 years. Salvadorans have been the second largest group of illegal aliens in the United States. second only to Mexicans. I think that fact alone belies this whole argument that somehow this is a new condition created by new civil disruptions in that country. The truth of the matter is that what has brought these people here is the same thing that has already brought them here. and that is jobs. In fact. the Salvadoran Government itself estimates that illegal Salvadorans working in the United States send their families home at least $350 million and perhaps as high as $600 million annually from wages earned in this country. In addition. most Salvadoran asylum applicants cannot show that violence is directed specifically at them. nor can they demonstrate that they would be in any greater danger than any other Salvadorans if they were to return. The truth of the matter is that we have talked a great deal here about equal protection. What this bill would require is.