Speech #1010049246

The yeas and nays have or will be asked for on this amendment. Let me share with you in very brief form. since no one had heard any side of this position. We have resolved it. but when it was originally circulated. the amendment would have stated that if a Chinese national establishes that he or she is escaping a forced abortion or sterilization. then the INS must grant that person refugee or asylum status. Of course. the amendment was drafted in response to recent denials of asylum applications from Chinese nationals who are apparently subject to forced abortion or sterilization. if they were to return to China. The Senator presented that illustration with some very graphic evidence. anecdotal evidence. During the Reagan administration Attorney General Meese issued a directive requiring the INS to give "serious consideration" was the phrase. to asylum requests from these Chinese nationals who were refusing to succumb to these coercive birth control policies. The Meese memo said: It may be appropriate to view such a refusal as an act of political defiance sufficient to establish refugee status. However. the amendment as originally circulated by my good friend from Colorado went significantly beyond the boundaries of the Meese directive. Instead of just strongly suggesting or recommending applications for Chinese nationals in this situation be granted asylum or refugee status. the amendment mandated that such status be granted. and that. of course. is a contradiction of the Refugee Act of 1980 which establishes the general standard for persecution which we all know so well. or wellfounded fear of persecution based on race. religion. nationality. membership in a particular social group. or political opinion. but leaves the determination of whether such fear of persecution actually exists to the examiner in the Individual case. So. I do not know whether the objection to coercive birth control policies constitutes a wellfounded fear of persecution based on political opinion in every single case. and the Attorney General did not know that either. thus the directive left that determination up to the individual asylum examiner.