You have found refuge. You cannot stay in the country 6 months or a year to wind up your affairs and yet claim to be fleeing persecution. Gertrude Stein said it best. if I may paraphrase. a refugee is a refugee is a refugee. You get out as swiftly as you can to save your hide. That is what you do when you are a refugee. And the sad part of it is we will now categorize and continue to do it with a country we are totally at peace with who we fund and support and is our friendliest of allies. We are courting. cooperating with. and supporting Russia at every turn. a country that has made tremendous strides as it struggles toward an open society. and here we are. There may be 16 million or more people waiting in the real world who are refugees. and we should deal with them and accept our fair share on a casebycase basis. but not on some blanket proposal that may have been at least more valid several years ago. but is certainly not valid with what we know of the former Soviet Union today. So I am ready again to take my lumps on this one. I have had knots on my head from speaking on these subjects for some time. But I hope you will all understand that this is not 1989 in any sense. and it is a totally different situation. You are using precious numbers for groups presumed to be refugees. and it will be paid for by the United States of America. and many of these people are simply immigrants and should come under our existing immigration laws. I yield the floor.
Identified stereotypes
Suggests that people who are truly fleeing persecution would not stay in their country for months or years to wind up their affairs.