Speech #1040191413

I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman. many of us are supporting numerous sections of the bill before us because it is time to crack down on illegal immigration. It is therefore ironic and I believe very unfortunate that the very deepest cuts imposed by the bill as presently written is not on illegal immigrants. it is not even on legal immigrants. but it is on refugees. Refugees would be cut from an authorized level of 110.000 last year to 50.000 in 1998 and succeeding years. a reduction of 55 percent. compared to less than 25 percent for other legal immigrants. Mr. Chairman. the refugee cap would be a dramatic departure from U.S. human rights policy. As chairman of the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights. the committee that has prime jurisdiction over our refugee policy. and also over the budget from the authorizing level perspective. and also over human rights in general around the world. I would submit that it would be a tragedy and just plain wrong to slash refugee admissions to the United States and to depart from what is now the current law adopted back in 1980 of an annual consultation between the Congress and the executive branch to prescribe the correct number of admissions for that year. Our first refugee laws were enacted just after World War II. when it became clear that we had effectively sentenced hundreds of Jewish refugees to death by forcing them back to Europe. The most dramatic instance was the voyage of the St. Louis. many of whose 1.000 passengers died in concentration camps after being excluded from the United States in 1939. Let us be very clear about what we are talking about. The four largest groups of refugees admitted to the United States are all people who are in deep trouble because they share our common values about human rights and freedom: First. Jews and evangelical Christians and Ukrainian Catholics from the former Soviet Union. There has been a lot of talk about how these people are not really refugees. But my subcommittee and also the Commission on hecurity and Cooperation in Europe. which I also chair. has held several hearings on the resurgence of rerression aimed at people of faith and people who. just because they are Jews or Christians or evangelicals. find themselves at the wrong end of their government. Mr.