Speech #1010044763

Madam Chairman. I rise in strong support of H.R. 2022. to restore presumptive refugee status to members of groups known to be subject to persecution in the Soviet Union. Today. thousands of Jews who emigrated from the Soviet Union are waiting in Moscow. Vienna. and Rome. for permission to enter the United States as refugees. Their dream of starting a new life in America has been indefinitely delayed because our Government arbitrarily changed the rules. H.R. 2022 simply corrects this inequity. Over the years. a number of Members of Congress and the administration. in recognition of the fact that Soviet Jews have suffered from persecution under the Soviet regime. have challenged the Soviet authorities to allow these individuals to immigrate freely to the United States. As a result of this persistent pressure. the Soviet Government is now allowing large numbers of citizens to emigrate. In 1988. 22.000 Soviets received permission to leave compared to 913 in 1986. Currently. 3.000 to 4.000 Soviet emigrants a month are arriving in Western Europe. This is a tremendous accomplishment and the Reagan and Bush administrations deserve much of the credit. But at the same time that their tireless efforts have begun to produce resuits. the Immigration and Naturalization Service has stopped granting automatic refugee status to Soviet Jews. Prior to the summer of 1988. the INS held that all Soviet Jews had a "wellfounded fear of persecution" and thus granted them automatic refugee status. Because of this change. to date. over 4.000 Soviet Jews have been denied refugee status. Many of those who have been waiting for months for a determination of their refugee status or who have been denied refugee status have friends and loved ones in my district. Thus. I have learned first hand of their ordeals. The case of Vilenin Tikhonov epitomizes the hardship that Soviet Jews have suffered as a result of the change in our refugee policy. A few years ago I helped Irene Goland. her son. and her parents emigrate from the Soviet Union to the United States. Unfortunately. Irenes husband. Vilenin Tikhonov. was unable to emigrate at that time. After being fired from his job and threatened with imprisonment for expressing his religious and political views. Vilenin Tikhonov was finally granted permission to leave the Soviet Union.