Speech #1020136838

I rise in support of the Conyers amendment to H.R. 3844. I would like to commend my good friend for his leadership on this issue. This countrys handling of the Haitian refugee crisis is cynical. hypocritical and meanspirited. How can we remove our own Ambassador to Haiti in protest of human rights violationand then repatriate refugees arguing that their human rights will not be Infringed? Between 1981 and President Aristides inauguration. 24.000 Haitians left Haiti for the United States. Of these. only 11 were able to pursue asylum claims. The rest were returned to Haiti. During the same time period. this country admitted 75.000 out of 75.000 Cubans seeking asylum. Tragically. refugees have become a pawn in this countrys foreign policy gamesmanship. In the 5 months since Aristides overthrow. 16.000 more Haitians have fled and been picked up by the United States Coast Guard. Clearly. these new refugees are fleeing political instability and oppression. Nonetheless. the State Department continues to maintain that they are economic refugees. and thus. must return to Haiti. What the Conyeni amendment would do is grant temporary political status. or political asylum. that the fleeing Haitians deserve. We owe the brave men and women who have risked their lives in search of freedom the same humanitarian treatment that this country granted Liberians during the fall of Samuel Doe.