A majority of those coming to the United States are joining families who were resettled here 1015 years ago. This law is working as intended. It has replaced an arbitrary and slow process of refugee adjudication in the former Soviet Union with a stable. consistent and fair process. It has meant that people already terrorized by longstanding hatred and persecution in their native lands are not further traumatized by a system that does not recognize their historical suffering. or makes arbitrary distinctions between people who have suffered similar fates. The law originally passed the Senate by a vote of 970 in 1989. and become law as part of the fiscal year 1990 Foreign Aid Appropriations Act.