Speech #1040249512

Blank and fraudulent documents are readily accessible. Only blatant cases of fraud can be denied outright. otherwise parole must be offered. The INS claim points out that not only are refugee claims of dubious qualitythat is. few of the applicants have actually experienced persecutionbut applicants do not even satisfy the category selected for special treatment. In other words. the applicants are not even Jewish or Evangelical Christians or Pentecostals or Orthodox Ukraine. The program has become an international disgrace. A State Department report mentions a satirical play performed in Moscow based on an applicant deceiving the INS adjudicators. An INS cable from 1993 says. "Many reliable sources have told us of a cottage Industry which has sprung up which gives refugee applicants classes on how to successfully pass their INS Interview." This amendment has the most pernicious effectand I know there is not a person in this Chamber that would want this to happen. but It doesthis amendment denies real refugees the opportunity for a safe haven in our country. This provision has established a multiyear commitment on behalf of the special categoriesin other words. the pipeline Is cloggedand has guaranteed that more than half of our fiscal year 1996 refugee numbers are going to people who are not really fleeing persecution. Our flexibility to respond to other refugee crises -in Liberia. in Burundi. in Bosniais sorely and cruelly limited by this commitment. "Cruelly" is a word I intended to use. So the INS officials go on to say. "The irony is that there are plenty of cases from the former Soviet Union which could qualify [as a refugee] under worldwide standards. however these cases stand little chance of being scheduled (for an interview] as they do not fit into one of the Lautenberg categories." I believe that we should keep an INS refugee team in Moscow. I will vote for that every time. Please hear that. I am not advocating that we cut back on admission of real refugees. but these adjudicators should be considering the claims of all residents on a casebycase basis. That is the law. These lowered standards and fraud also have another effect. This Lautenberg provision has created an attractive avenue for Russian organized crime figures to secure entry into the United States. Let me read from the FBIs white paper on Russian organized crime. The FBI discusses the Lautenberg process and says: Many of these immigrants claimed that their reason for leaving the Soviet Union was predominantly to escape religious persecution. Not all of these crimes can be considered to be accurate. The ranks of these emigres included Intellectuals. professionals. and others from the middle and lower classes of Soviet society. who only claimed religious persecution. but had not actually experienced it. It has been estimated by American law enforcement authorities that roughly 2.000 of these immigrants were criminals who continued their criminal occupations in the United States. So the FBI has identified the Lautenberg program as a point of entry for some members of the "Russian Mafia" Into this country. But we do not need to stop there.