I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding time to me. Madam Chairman. I rise today in support of H.R. 2022. and commend the committee for its leadership on this legislation which would make it easier for Soviet and Indochinese people to qualify for refugee status in the United States. I thank the committee for their hard work on this because this is an issue very important to the people of my district of San Francisco. I believe it is essential that we adopt legislation which presumes the prosecution of Soviet Jews and Evangelical Christians and certain categories of Indochinese people. This bill shifts the burden of proof from the refugee to the U.S. Government. The United States has long condemned the Soviet Union for its persecution of Soviet Jews and Evangelical Christians. It would be the height of hypocrisy if. in the face of an easing of Soviet restrictions on emigrationsomething we have all worked and hoped forthe United States decided it would not accept these people as refugees. Likewise. in Indochina. we have witnessed an alarming growth in boat refugees from Vietnam. Laos. and Cambodia. Last month. the United States went to the Geneva Conference on Indochinese Refugees and. to our credit. pressed strongly to prohibit forcible repatriation of refugees to Vietnam. We cited repression of Vietnamese dissidents. clerics and intellectuals. and the continued existence of a "gulag" of reeducation camps. The United States must hot be seen to vacillate on this issue.
Keywords matched
Refugees refugee emigrationsomething refugees