Speech #1010094028

Humanitarian considerations require us to offer temporary refuge to people already in our country who cannot return home safely. The threat to human life posed by war or natural disaster can be as greator even greaterthan the risk to life posed by the threat of persecution. Also. our willingness to provide temporary protected status sets a positive example to other nations to respond compassionately to crises situations outside their borders. The United States can contribute to an elevation of international protection standards by demonstrating our readiness to offer temporary protected status. Our efforts to urge compassionate treatment of displaced persons temporarily residing in other lands are undermined when we forcibly return people to places where they face danger. Most Salvadorans and Nicaraguans in the United States illegally are not likely to be deported to their home countries. We neither have the desire nor the manpower to enforce deportation. Aliens who register for temporary protected status. however. will become more identifiable. This is far better than the present situation where we do not know the identity or whereabouts of hundreds of thousands. They will be more likely to leave the country if conditions at home improve and their temporary status terminates. In the meantime. it is in our national interest to have Salvadorans and Nicaraguans living in the open rather than maintaining an underground existence. Temporary protected status for Salvadorans and Nicaraguans enjoys the support of proponents of democracy in those two countries. The Ambassador from El Salvador. on behalf of President Cristiani. and Adolfo Calero of the Nicaraguan ResistancL- are among those who have urged enactment of such legislation benefiting nationals of El Salvador and Nicaragua. Former President Jose Napoleon Duarte of El Salvador made a similar plea last year. Many colleagues have made the point that Chinese Nationals in the United States need temporary protected status. Their very presence in this country at the time the events in Tiananmen Square surely subjects them to grave risk. Mr.