Speech #1040067519

Chairman. I rise in support of the Smith amendment to the Bereuter amendment. If adopted without the Smith amendment the Bereuter amendment will make the United States complicit in the persecution of thousands of Southeast Asian refugees. Forget the rhetoric of the nativism demagogues. the Bereuter amendment would not close any loophole in our immigration law. because none exists. In fact. it would shatter what is best and most balanced in our refugee policy. Without Smith. the Bereuter amendment would eliminate language in the bill requiring that no one can be returned to Vietnam with the assistance of American taxpayer money until they receive a fair and impartial screening to determine if they are genuine refugees. Is there something wrong with that? The language of the bill is straightforward: It provides up to $30 million for the relocation of Vietnamese. Laotian. or Cambodian refugees. It prohibits the use of U.S. funds to repatriate those refugees unless the President can certify that bona fide refugees. and only bona fide refugees. have been offered. not even placed in but offered resettlement outside their countries of nationality. That means relocation anywhere else. not only to the United States. It also requires the President to certify that the process of determining refugee status conforms to our basic commitment to fairness. honesty. and due process. The bill does not. as you may have heard. require that all these refugees come to the United States. Read the bill. its on pages 102103. The bill does not steal money away from refugees from the former Soviet Union. Eighty million dollars is set aside for that purpose on page 101. So what is all the excitement about? These refugees are not on U.S. soil. our Government is not running these refugee camps. Is it too much to suggest that we should not pay for their forced repatriation until we can be assured that they will not face persecution? For those refugees who will come to the United States. this bill does not create any new refugee slots. In fact it does not even use all of the slots available. These are refugees who quality for resettlement. that is. refugees who are persecuted for their past affiliation with the United State or who have been persecuted on the basis of religion or ethnicity. We must not abandon our commitment to honesty. fairness. and decency. I know money for refugee programs is politically unpopular these days. At the very least we should agree that those scarce dollars that are available should not be used to move refugees involuntarily to their countries of origin to face persecution. Mr. Speaker.