Speech #1010049548

I am now going to proceed. It will not take long. The compromise amendment would have. in my mind. created a legal presumption that certain Soviet and Vietnamese nationals immediately qualified for refugee status. However. now the compromise amendment will lower the burden of proof for demonstrating refugee status for the following groups: Soviet Jews. Evangelical Christians. Ukrainian Catholics and Ukrainian Orthodox and Vietnamese nationals who are applying for the Orderly Departure Program. ODP. with letters of introduction. but who do not immediately qualify for immigrant visas. For those nationals it is sufficient that they demonstrate a particular mistreatment prejudicial action taken againt them or that they demonstrate acts of persecution against other members of their group or that they demonstrate mistreatment or prejudicial actions taken against them because of their personel request to leave the Soviet Union. The compromise would allow this lowered burden of proof to be in effect for 1 year. In addition. the compromise would provide for the adjustment of status to permanent residents of those persons who accepted an offer of parole into the United States after failing to qualify for refugee status. That final provision was not controversial. In fact. I had intended to introduce legislation to provide that type of an amendment even if Senator LAUTENBERGS amendment had not gone through. I have strong reservations about two aspects of the entire issue and it has to do only with the fact that I have tried desperately to preserve the Refugee Act of 1980. which was spread on the books by my colleague from Massachusetts in my first couple of years here and that is this singling out of certain groups for special treatment. I think that is a mistake. The Refugee Act was placed on the books to avoid specific activity where we recognized a certain special group. Then there is the endorsement of a standard of mistreatment that might be. really. less than "persecution." Those were the things that concerned me. I think those apsects of the issue are not consistent with the Refugee Act. The Senator from New Jersey has done his work well and arranged substantial support for his position. I did not wish to step in front of a freight train by attempting to resolve all of the concerns of mine on the compromise. and he was very gracious to let me resolve some of them. I just say to my colleagues. we must be alert to what we do with refugees because there are people all over the world who want to come here and there may be about 16 million who are true refugees. If we are ready for that. we should be prepared to debate that. That is the only reason I speak. I am not a restrictionist. Refugees should be always be handled on a casebycase basis and now in the Soviet Union. we read in their press. they are now changing their laws on emigration and are ready to drop many previous restrictions. They say they may be ready to deliver to us 100.000 or 200.000 persons. or even 300.000 persons. That is something we must prepare for intelligently as a country.