Speech #1010045081

It seems to me that those very same students. and a great many more. American students. not Just of Chinese ancestry but of Japanese ancestry perhaps should be demonstrating in front of the consulates and Embassies of Japan and those of other trading partners who have shown no reluctance to rush back into China notwithstanding the tongue clucking that they may have done. expressing their dismay at the kind of repression that has been the regime in Beijing. Let me say as well that I think that we need not only to express as is stated in the MitchellDole amendment before us that we are serious and that we intend to sustain this kind of pressure. both moral and economic. but it is necessary as well that we take the kind of action that we did the other day in both the MitchellDole and the Gorton amendments to S. 358. the Immigration Act of 1989. regarding the visa status of Chinese nationals residing in the United States. It seems to me that it is appropriate that we assure that that treatment provided by these amendments be guaranteed. and if need be. if we find that the immigration bill is uncertain of passage. as I suspect it may be. that a proper amendment to this bill before us now would be the very same Gorton amendment as we attached to the immigration bill because the situation. very simply stated. is that the existing circumstances in which Chinese students find themselves in America is one intended to give them comfort. but it does not give them the kind of longer term certainty that they actually require. that I believe that we should assure them. What we have seen now is that the Attorney General. Mr. Thornburgh. has indicated that if visas expire we will not in the normal course seek deportation of those who would then be here in an illegal status. What the Gorton amendment did was to see to it that regardless of visa expiration. through June 1993. those Chinese students who choose to may remain here in the United States. that they may in fact become temporary residents which will ultimately place them on the path to permanent residency and citizenship. It seems to me that that is what we ought to be guaranteeing these students because under the scenario as it presently exists. as it has been offered by the Attorney General. it is not really good enough to say. "If you make clear. if you manifest your unwillingness to return to China. we will not send you back." And for very obvious reasons. Mr. President. because the manifestation of that unwillingness may prove perilous to family and to relatives who are in the PRC. We all know that the Chinese consulate in Boston had sent out people to videotape demonstrators. those Chinese students demonstrating in Massachusetts. It seems to me that the greater protections afforded by the Senate the other day in the adoption of the Gorton amendment to the immigration bill is something that we should attach as well to this legislation which has a better path. a better opportunity to become law and more rapidly. I would hope. So I will seek out the distinguished majority leader and the Republican leader and urge them to put this same legislation upon this bill.