Speech #1010111178

At best. the administrations position reflects gross Insensitivity to the legitimate fears of the Chinese students. At worst. it represents unwitting collusion with a Chinese Government that would much have rather have these individuals back home where their cries for democracy may be more easily stifled. Under our immigration laws any visitor for pleasure to the United States has the right to apply for a change of immigration status to any other nonimmigrant category or to any immigrant category. If the person qualifies. the adjustment of status will be made. Similarly. there are several hundred thousand students studying now in the United States and nothing In our laws prevents them from applying for a change of status. But for the majority of Chinese students now in the United States the situation is different. Of the 40.000 now here. about 32.000 are exchange students. Under our law an exchange student cannot in most cases adjust to any other immigration status without first returning home for at least 2 years. The rationale for this requirement is that the exchange student has either come here under Government auspices or has been designated as someone having an expertise of particular benefit to the home country. In general. it is a sound rationale. but like any other policy it must give way when countervailing considerations are more important. In light of Tiananmen Square the 2year home residence requirement for Chinese exchange visitors needs to be waived. and that. quite simply is what H.R. 2712and this Conference Reportdoes. On this issue of the waiver. the House- ahd Senatepassed versions of H.R. 2712 differed. Under the Senate version. a Chinese exchange student would have received the waiver if that individual. first. applied for the waiver within 1 year of enactment. and second. was in fact qualified to receive a different immigration status. By contrast. the House provision was more generous in that it made the waiver available to all Chinese exchange students in the United States without regard to any filing deadline and without regard to whether the individual might be qualified. at the time of seeking the waiver for some other immigration status. The conference report now before us strikes what I think is a reasonable compromise between those two positions. Under the compromise language the individual will have 4 years from date of enactment to apply for the waiver.