Speaking just for myself. but I suspect also for many of my colleagues In the House. I can say that the hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese. Lao. and Cambodians who have come to our country over the course of the last 15 years have helped in significant ways to revitalize the cultural and economic life of our country. and I certainly think we should continue to permit them to come here. if they choose to do so and if they qualify for admission under our refugee criteria. Finally. and perhaps most importantly. this resolution expresses the very strong sense of the Congress that the forthcoming Refugee Conference in Geneva should reject any efforts to legitimize the principle and practice of forced repatriation. I can sympathize with the difficulties which the influx of refugees may be posing for the countries of first asylum in Southeast Asia. but I cannot sympat- ze with the effort to take these wretched people who have risked their lives in the search for freedom and to force them against their will to go back to a Communist country in which reeducation camps still exist and where their future is likely to be imperiled by virtue of the fact that they tried to escape in the first place. So. Mr. Speaker. I want to pay tribute to the gentleman from Massachusetts for forcefully raising this issue. for introducing this legislation. for speaking up as he has consistently done ever since he first arrived in Washington on behalf of the refugees from Southeast Asia. His has been an eloquent voice on their behalf. He has reminded us of some very fundamental American values and he has asked us not to fall victim to the disease of compassion fatigue. but instead to reaffirm our commitment to the cause of refugees. which in the final analysis is what America is all about.
Keywords matched
Refugee refugee refugees