Speech #1010020000

President. I rise to introduce a bill to temporarily reinstate the longstanding presumption that Soviet Jews. Evangelical Christians. and certain Vietnamese have a wellfounded fear of persecution entitling them to refugee status. I am joined by Senator GRASSLEY and Senator SIMON as original cosponsors. A similar bill has been introduced by Representatives MORRISON and FISH. chairman and ranking minority member of the House Judiciarys Subcommittee on Immigration. This bill is endorsed and supported by the U.S. Catholic Conference. the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. the American Jewish Committee. and the Council of Jewish Federations. and I ask unanimous consent that their statements of support be included in the RECORD following my remarks. Specifically. for fiscal years 1989. 1990. and 1991. this bill establishes that Soviet Jews. Evangelical Christians. and Vietnamese registered with the United States Orderly Departure Program who currently hold a United States letter of IntroductionODP Vietnameseare members of groups for whom persecution. or fear of persecution. if alleged. will be presumed. Once a refugee applicant establishes that he or she is a member of one of these groups. and alleges persecution or fear of persecution to the interviewing INS officer. he does not have to provide additional or independent evidence regarding persecution. This bill does not establish an irrebuttable presumption of refugee status. since the INS officer can use evidence other than from the applicant himself to disquality the applicant as a refugee. Nor does this bill eliminate or interfere with the requirement for casebycase determinations of refugee status under the Refugee Act of 1980. In essence. this bill simply establishes a strong but rebuttable presumption that applicants In the designated groups have a legitimate fear of persecution that entitles them to refugee status. The bill further allows Soviet Jews. Evangelical Christians. and specified Vietnamese admitted to the United States under parole after being denied refugee status from August 1988 through September 30. 1989. to be retroactively adjusted to refugee status. Why is this bill necessary? Because after years of considering members of these groups to automatically qualify as refugees. the Immigration and Naturalization Service tINS] recently departed from its longstanding practice of presuming these groups have a wellfounded fear of persecution. As a result. large numbers of applicants from these groups have been denied refugee status despite a lack of meaningful change in the conditions facing them in their native countries. Many of these refugees are now stranded. either in their home countries or in transit. with no place to go. Many have taken great risks to simply apply to come to the United States. Moreover. the determinations under the new INS standard have been found by the General Accounting Office [GAO] to be inconsistent and arbitrary. Often. they are made by INS officers with scant knowledge of the pervasive persecution facing Soviet refugee applicants in their native country. Similar determinations have been made by private groups with respect to the Vietnamese refugee applicants. I ask unanimous consent that a copy of the GAO report be included in the RECORD following my remarks. Until the fall of 1988. all Soviet Jews were assumed to have a wellfounded fear of persecution. automatically qualifying them for refugee status. During the fall of 1988. the United States began denying the refugee applications of some Soviet Jews on the grounds that they did not have a wellfounded fear of persecution. While the rate of denial for all of 1988 was 7 percent. the rate has risen dramatically to 37.8 percent for the first 3 weeks of March. As of March 20. 1.476 people have been denied. Although 70 percent of the denials have been overturned on appeal. those who have been denied on final appeal are citizenless people. waiting on refugee row in Ladispoli. Italy. Today. 114 citizenless people wait without hope. after living in fear and suffering. and persecution and prejudice simply for being Jews. Similarly. in 1988. 1.500 Pentecostals and other Evangelical Christians. including Baptists were denied refugee status. although the INS had never denied them such status previously. And. in the Vietnamese Orderly Departure Program [ODP]. which had a historic rejection rate of under 10 percent of those applying. there has been a sudden and drastic increase in rejections of refugee status since January. In March. the rejection rate reached 80 percent. Have conditions facing Soviet Jews.