Mr. President. 8 years ago. in 1979. Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union was at its peak of 51.320. Tragically. the number declined rapidly over the years and began to show a turnaround only in 1985. The number that year was a mere 1.140 men and women fortunate enough to begin new lives in the free world. In 1986. even this slight positive trend evaporated with only 914 Soviet Jews allowed to emigrate. I submit that this is unacceptable to the American people and free people throughout the world. We do not understand the Soviet harassment and imprisonment of people simply because they are Jewish. The Soviets cannot explain this clearcut violation of human rights and must hide behind the smokescreen of security concerns and bureaucratic obstacles in a feeble attempt to justify their actions. Among the many victims of this inhumane charade is the Terlitsky family. Mark Terlitsky. his wife. daugther. and mother first applied for permission to emigrate to Israel in 1976. They were refused an exit visa then and in 1977 and 1978. Finally. in 1979. they were promised permission to leave in 1980. However. they were subsequently refused permission to emigrate to Israel for 3 more years. Permission to emigrate to the United States and join Marks brother Leonard was denied in 1983. 1985. and 1987. The reason for these continuous denials was "Marks possession of secret information." This is one of several bureaucratic reasons Soviet officials use to deny permission for emigration. In Marks case. it is totally without foundation. Mark is an architect by profession. In the paranoid security state that is the Soviet Union. even architectural knowledge seems to pose some kind of threat. Mark did in fact have a security clearance. yet he never worked on any classified projects nor worked with any classified materials. In fact. his clearance was administratively revoked in 1975. a year before he first applied for emigration. Furthermore. he has not been able to pursue his profession for 12 years and has had no opportunity to subsequently learn anything classified. In short. the Soviet claim is ridiculous.
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emigrate emigration visa