I respect Mr. MOAKLEY and Senator DECONClNI a great deal and I think they put a lot of energy in trying to do what they think is right. However. having been a member of the Subcommittee on Immigration for nearly 7 years having worked with the problem. particularly of the refugees and the displacidos in El Salvador. I am extremely concerned about the impact of this legislation and I respectfully disagree with them about the need for this. the appropriateness of it and frankly I think if we vote tonight to pass this piece of legislation we are going to send precisely the wrong signal to the communities. not only in El Salvador. but around the world with regard to what we are doing and what we intend to do on the issue of asylum and letting people stay here or beckoning them to come. I will tell you what the real problem is here. a lot of people do not understand the subject matter in the first place. despite the debate about it. Extended voluntary departure is a term the Attorney General has used for a long time for a discretionary way of letting people stay in the United States when indeed he has the power to let them stay instead of deporting them. He categorizes it as a group. whole group of people. It was used with respect to Poland at one time. We in this particular case for the first time are legislating that. We are demanding a suspension of deportation pending a Government audit of the whole situation. On the premise. at least for the most part. that has been advocated here today and before our committees with regard to El Salvador in particular. the individuals who are in the United States already. who are being returned down there. would indeed in threat of having their lives. their health affected by going back down there. that they are in some kind of a threat about being persecuted or being killed or whatever. I think that simply is not borne out by the facts.
Keywords matched
Immigration deporting deportation refugees