Mr. Speaker. as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and as a person long committed to improving the plight of refugees worldwide. I am deeply disturbed by the mass deportation of Haitians longing for freedom from oppression. In recent years. the United States. as the leader of the free world. has taken Justifiable pride in our role as a model for emerging democracies around the globe. We have been eager to lend a helping hand to newly liberated nations as the Berlin Wall crumbled and the Iron Curtain fell. We have been a strong advocate for many nationalities who have fled their homeland to escape danger and to seek asylum in the United States. Recent press reports detailed a daring exploit involving a plane carrying Cuban defectors which was guided safely to United States soil with radar cover and other technical assistance offered by our Government. In view of our enthusiastic efforts to promote democracy around the globe. we cannot avoid this troubling question: Why is our Government treating Haitian refugees so differently? Why are we so callous about their fate? In one of his most famous novels. the author George Orwell made the satirical observation that. "Everyone is equal. but some are more equal than others." Unfortunately. that notion seems to apply to our policy toward those seeking political asylum.
Keywords matched
seek asylum deportation refugees