Speech #1010049529

I thank the Senator from New Jersey for helping to work with us. I. quite frankly. think that this is a more desirable solution than the one earlier proposed. I think it is more consistent with the past historic refugee policy. I believe it is important that my colleagues understand some of that history in the Soviet case. Mr. President. almost a year ago. thenAttorney General Meese substantially altered the process for determining who from the Soviet Union should be admitted to the United States under official refugee status. Up until that time. the United States had a tacit policy of approving all Soviet Jews. But as Mr. Meese pointed out. quite correctly. such an approach is "out of sync" with the procedures of the Refugee Act of 1980. which call for casebycase judgments as to who is really a refugee. The problem came with the implementation of this new policy. The Immigration Service was not up to the challenge. It lacked the officers and the training to perform the delicate task of deciding refugee cases. And the General Accounting Office and voluntary agencies reported to Congress earlier this year about major inconsistencies in the manner in which INS officers handled Soviet cases. And. in February of this year. the same casebycase approach was adopted for Vietnamese in the Orderly Departure Program. Mr. President. these changes came Just as America was witnessing its greatest success in securing the right of emigration from the Soviet Union. After years of persecution and separation from relatives abroad. Soviet authorities were beginning at long last to allow Soviet citizens to depart. But just as barriers were coming down in the Soviet Union. we began erecting bureaucratic obstacles of our own in the manner in which we processed refugee applications. The chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Senator BIDEN. and I wrote to the President on May 26 warning of the rising concern in Congress over the handling of Soviet refugee claims. We stated: If the administration cannot adequately implement a casebycase program. or deal with the backlog of applicants in Rome. efforts will surely be made in Congress to temporarily resolve these problems through legislation. Mr.