Speech #1000108517

Mr. President. I speak from my deep concern that we should not lightly. and on an ad hoc basis. amend the Refugee Act of 1980. The Refugee Act was enacted in 1980 to bring some order and rationality to one of the most important traditions of this country: providing asylum for persons from around the world who flee political persecution in their homelands. For 35 years following World War II. we followed a casebycase. or countrybycountry. refugee program. admitting refugees and displaced persons in fits and starts in a manner which Congress determined to be inadequate. discriminatory and out of touch with refugee and asylum needs in the 1980s The Refugee Act was drafted to establish a policy which would treat all refugees and asylees fairly and assist all refugees and asylees equally. It was intended that the piecemeal approach we had followed previously would be replaced by a coherent. comprehensive policy. Yesterday. Mr. President. we debated an amendment which urged a special refugee policy for one particular region of the worldan amendment which will distort the working of the Refugee Act. The amendment before us now would make changes in our Refugee Act where particular countries are concerned. and I believe both amendments are a real step backward from the Refugee Act which has eliminated the former geographical and ideological restrictions on the admission of refugees. I fear we are returning to the old patchwork of different programs that evolve in response to specific areas of concernor pressure. I do understand the sponsors strong feeling about the Medvid incident. I share his concern and distress about the initial handling of that situation. but we should not amend the Refugee Act based on one isolated incident. The Refugee Act was specifically drafted to be ideologically neutral. We should not change that. But more importantly. we surely dont need to amend the Refugee Act. The protection this amendment would seek is available under current law stating: The Attorney General shall not deport or return any alien (other than a Nazi who participated in the persecution of others) to a country. if the Attorney General determines that such aliens life or freedom would be threatened in such country on account of race. religion. nationality. membership in a particular social group. or political opinion. Section 243(h)(1). Immigration and Nationality Act. Mr. President. the current law and our traditionally generous refugee and asylum policy cover very well the situation this amendment would address. The amendment is unnecessary. and would only encourage additional "country specific" amendments to the Refugee Act which. as I have said. was enacted to avoid exactly this kind of off the cuff refugee and asylum policy. Further. this amendment would create an extraordinary intrusion into the jurisdiction and authority of the Justice Department. which. under current law. is the designated agency to determine asylum status and the admissibility of refugees. We should not now shift all or part of that duty to the State Department which is illequipped to handle it. Nor should we transfer jurisdiction over this matter in Congress from the Judiciary Committee to the Foreign Relations Committee. as the amendment would do in its reporting requirements.