Speech #1010073920

This is essentially what we did on the State Department authorization bill. It has been worked out with Senator LAUTENBERO and Senator KENNEDY. That was the amendment to clarify the burden of proof required of Soviet and Vietnamese refugee applicants when these groups of people seek the approval of meeting the definition of the Refugee Act of 1980. I think the importance here and what I will briefly say is that here we are dealing with specific types of government mistreatment that could leave a beneficiary of this bill having a wellfounded fear of persecution In his or her homeland and the importance of this is to adjust permanent residents. those Soviets and refugees admitted into the United States. not as refugees but under a grant of public interest parole. I just do not think it is a good precedent to ever start singling out certain groups for special treatment when we have statutes that purport to treat refugees as country neutral. So we have worked this out. but I think it is going to be a continual lure for us to want to do that. and that is exactly the violation of the Refugee Act of 1980. that we do not have country specific and certain religious groups and certain ethnic groups. and that is not what it is for. It is for a casebycase determination of these people throughout the world. If we do not stay with that philosophyand we have here. We are Just adding a lesser burden of proofI think anything else would distort our very generous policy and it will be very heavily strained in the years to come with what the Soviet Union is doing. I would not want to see the distortion of that where the refugee group with the strongest lobby in Washington receives refugee status rather than the refugee group that is in the most dire need of assistance. We are going to have to watch that. Immigrant rather than refugee status is the most appropriate I think for the class of Vietnamese. I think we ought to stay close to that If we can. Nevertheless. I thank my friends from New Jersey and Massachusetts for their cooperative spirit and I am certainly willing to accept that. But the issue of presumptive status of refugees will vex us for many years to come.