Speech #1010183961

It welcomes the efforts of Great Britain to encourage other nations to develop their own national initiatives designed to provide such rights to substantial and significant numbers of Hong Kong residents. Furthermore. It urges the executive branch of our own government to work with other countries in considering the establishment of what I would characterize as an international Immigration insurance policy for the people of Hong Kong. I recently returned from a trip to Hong Kong during the July recess. Mr. Speaker. and I discovered in my discussions with the political and commercial leaders of the territory that the overwhelming majority of the Hong Kong people would like to remain in Hong Kong if they could have some assurance that they will be able to leave if the situation should take a turn for the worse at some time in the future. Unfortunately. right now the immigration policy of our own country and of other nations is generally based on the proposition that once you receive a visa to enter our country or other countries. as the case may be. you have to either use that visa within a matter of months or you lose your ability to use It at all. That puts those Hong Kong people who receive such visas in a position where if they do not use them right away they will forfeit their opportunity to move to another country. Consequently virtually everybody who receives such visas departs Hong Kong shortly thereafter. I am very pleased to say that the Subcommittee on Immigration. Refugees. and International Law of the Committee on the Judiciary voted some time ago to incorporate in the immigration bill a provision which I fervently hope will soon be taken up by the full Committee on the Judiciary. and then reported to the House for its consideration this provision would not only increase the number of visas for which Hong Kong is eligible from 5.000 to 20.000. but would also make Hong Kong recipients of family unification visas and other specified visas eligible to use those visas until the year 2002. 5 years after the transfer of authority to Beijing has taken place. I want to say to my colleagues that I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that if that provision is ultimately enacted into law that many of the Hong Kong people who receive our visas will. in fact. choose to remain in Hong Kong so long as they can because that is what they would prefer to do. By virtue of enacting such a provision we will give them the sense of confidence they need to remain and thereby contribute to the stability of a territory which has contributed greatly to the prosperity of Asia and to the economic wellbeing of our country as well. Therefore.