Speech #1010094011

Chairman. the House today considers H.R. 45. a bill that has been known in this Congress in the past as the MoakleyDeConcini bill. The genesis of this legislation has been to respond to a problem that we know exists in our country. hundreds of thousands of individuals who have fled war. earthquake. suffering in El Salvador and Nicaragua. and who are here in the United States. During the past several years there have been intense debates over which of these individuals are entitled to be treated as refugees or asylees. in other words. which of them have individual fear of persecution. and whether the system by which these determinations are being made has been fair and equitable with respect to the individuals from these two countries. At the same time. legislation has been considered and twice before passed in the House of Representatives to allow these individuals a temporary stauts to remain in the United States while the facts in these countries from which they come would be clarified. Earlier this year another event occurred which raised similar issues in this country. and that is with the brutal murders in Tiananmen Square of Chinese students and workers demonstrating in support of democracy. When that event occurred. thousands of Chinese students and other Chinese nationals found themselves here in the United States fearful of returning home to China but not necessarily seeking any kind of permanentresident status in the United States through asylum or otherwise. The Immigration Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary in hearings as well as in subsequent markups considered this set of facts and the applicability of our existing immigration law to these circumstances. The legislation that we are considering on the floor today is a result of that process. It is a marriage of three separate legislative initiatives that have been considered in this year and in the past. It is a marriage of the MoakleyDeConcini legislation directed at providing a temporary status in the United States. a protected status for Salvadorans and Nicaraguans who are here. It is the modification of the Presidents order providing a temporary protected status to Chinese nationals which was issued on a 1year basis and without clear statutory basis in June of this year. and a general concern that what has been called extended voluntary departure or delayed enforced departure. various administrative actions that create the ability of someone whose country is in turmoil. to stay here in the United States ought to be replaced with a comprehensive statutory scheme under which these decisions could be made and where the rights and responsibilities of the individuals involved would be clear. Mr. Chairman. it is those three provisions which are served by this legislation. and I believe we have managed to put together through the leadership of the chairman of the Committee on Rules. the gentleman from Massachusetts . a very effective vehicle that answers those three concerns. and that is the bill that the House will be voting on. We have the statutory framework that creates temporary protected status for such individuals and defines the conditions under which that status will be available. It requires that individuals who will have such a status not just be here. but be registered for that status. so that they are identifiable. It allows such individuals who have basic rights in terms of the right to work and the right to travel.