Speech #1040191422

I think the arguments have been made quite well. Let us make no mistake about this. First of all. let us distinguish between refugees and asylees. There has been a good deal of abuse in the asylum process. We have tried to fix that in this bill. In fact. it has been fixed almost too far. from my judgment. and that is one of my regrets about this bill. But refugees are the people not only who have been persecuted. but who have waited on line. They have not tried to come here illegally. They cannot claim refugee status here. They wait and wait and wait. oftentimes risking political persecution. torture and everything else until the time is for them to come here. So these. if there was ever a meaning to the Statute of Liberty. it is in the refugee allotment. The refugees who come are those who have a wellfounded fear of persecution. are those who have waited in line a long time and are those that make the fact that we accept them. makes America the beacon that it is to citizens who cannot point to us on map. who do not know English. but around the world it brings us an aura of goodness. an aura of doing the right thing. an aura of being the hope and the last great hope of the world. as a poet said. more than anything else. The benefits to America are beyond the benefits that so many refugees have contributed in terms of science and the arts. The benefits are that around the world we are looked up to as the best country. That is a benefit we should not throw out lightly to reduce a number by 30.000 or 40.000. I dare say. talk to business people. and diplomats and people like that. They will say the benefits come back economically because we are so well thought of for this small amount of people that we take in. So. while I certainly agree that immigration must be reformed. cutting back on refugees beyond what is in the present law goes way too far. and I would urge respectfully that my colleagues support the amendment that Mr. SMrrH. the gentleman from New Mexico. Mr.