Speech #1010068122

Ambassador. the symbol of hope for those people is now gone. Indeed. the United States Embassy provided the only hope for reuniting families and friends left in Lebanon for many LebaneseAmerican families. The State Department estimates that some 20.000 Lebanese are waiting to immigrate to the United States. Their visas have been approved and they have American sponsors in the form of parents. brothers. sisters or children who are already U.S. citizens or are resident aliens in the awaiting U.S. citizenship. But because of restrictive immigration quotas. many of those 20.000 people face 2 to 6 year waiting period before being allowed into the United States. The past 6 months of the conflict alone has left over 800 people dead and 2.500 wounded. we simply cannot make people wait for years and years when the situation is so obviously life threatening. The war in Lebanon came home to Wichita. and to me. when one family my office had been working with on immigration matters lost a family member in a bomb blast in Beirut. He had Just been told that he could pick up his visas in 2 weeks for travel to the United States. That tragedy is repeated far too frequently for LebaneseAmericans waiting to be Joined here by other family members. Virtually all families have suffered the loss of a loved one. the constant pain of trying to live in the rubble of Beirut. and the fear of what another day of intensive shelling of residential neighborhoods will bring.