Speech #1020087154

President. I rise to offer my support and cosponsorship for the measure introduced by my distinguished colleagues. Senators KASTEN and INoUYE. regarding loan guarantees for the absorption of Jewish refugees into Israel. This important financial commitment is consistent with Americas centuriesold tradition of encouraging the free emigration of people living under oppressive political conditions. Mr. President. for almost 20 years. a major predicate of Americas foreign policy and international trade policy has been the idea that the Soviet Union and other closed societies must permit free emigration in order to secure normal trade relations with us. The JacksonVanik amendment was a milestone in U.S. foreign policy. A landmark event in U.S. efforts to free captive peoples. Now they are free. In the past 2 years. our unwavering commitment to free emigration has finally borne fruit. A massive wave of immigration into Israel began in 1989 and continues today. Since then. nearly 350.000 Soviet and Ethiopian Jews have emigrated to Israel. and it is estimated that the total will reach 1 million by the end of 1995. Mr. President. as a nation built by immigrants fleeing religious and political persecution we have a special responsibility to assist Israel in absorbing this massive new wave of immigrants. While we have prodded the Soviets for decades to open their borders. we have not raised our own refugee immigrant ceilings to accommodate the vastly increased numbers of Soviet immigrants that have now been allowed to leave. In fact. ever since the late 1980s. when the United States began incountry immigration processing in the Soviet Union. it has become far more difficult for Soviet citizens to emigrate to the United States than when the RomeVienna immigration pipeline was open. Where else can these immigrants turn except to Israel? And is it not our responsibility to facilitate their absorption in Israel if we are unwilling to accept them? Mr.