By October 1988. Soviet Jews. Armenians. and Pentecostals began to be rejected for refugee status. This problem continued to escalate over the winter and spring and persists even now. Approximately 4.000 Soviets. the majority of them Jews. have been denied refugee status and remain in Rome. Another 5.000 have applications pending before our 3 INS officers. while more than 3.000 have not yet applied for immigration. The change in administration policy is traced back to an August 1988 memo issued by then Attorney General Edwin Meese. The Attorney General asserted that the "current practices in processing Soviet emigrees appear not to conform with the requirements of the 1980 Refugee Act." U.S. policy toward those few emigrees permitted to leave the Soviet Union before Gorbachev opened the gates. received refugee status on an almost automatic basis. It is tragic that the administration changed its policy just as the Soviets changed their immigration policy. Thousands of Soviets who have waited many years to emigrate. must now face the prospect of waiting up to 2 or more additional years to leave. U.S. policy has long been based on the presumption that Soviet Jews. were by definition. persecuted. Although the situation for Jews has improved under Gorbachev. there remains an institutionalized antisemitism.
Identified stereotypes
Soviet Jews were by definition persecuted.