Speech #1050099635

The version of this legislation before us today contains some provisions that were not in Senator MACKS original proposal. I am quick to say I preferred the original for that reason. First. while I think that temporary reductions in legal immigration categories are far superior to elimination of any. as the House originally proposed. I am not persuaded that we should be doing either. Moreover. since we have current categories with unused visas. if we must turn anywhere to "borrow" visas for these refugees. an approach that I feel is at odds with our humanitarian traditions. I would prefer to borrow any unused visas from the previous fiscal year before making any reductions. Second. while the legislation makes clear that no retroactive change is to be made in the standards for suspension of deportation as applied to Central American. Eastern European. and Soviet asylum applicants. it also makes clear that we are retroactively changing those standards for everybody else. I see no reason to do so. I have opposed the retroactive application of this provision to all individuals. regardless of their nationality. This is not because I take issue with the objective I believe the House is seeking: to make it harder for some people who have been abusing the rules by dragging out their deportation proceedings in order to accrue the 7 years they need for suspension of deportation. The problem is that the legislation does not and cannot distinguish between those who have been taking advantage of this loophole and others who have done nothing wrong and who have been stuck in administrative backlogs through no fault of their own. Retroactivity is particularly unjustified with respect to refugees from countries not covered by this compromise who have equities similar to those of the Nicaraguans. Salvadorans. and Guatemalans. In recent years. many people came to the United States under a legal or quasilegal status. fleeing tyrannical regimes that were either enemies of the United States or allies whose domestic abuses were countenanced because of the countrys strategic significance in the struggle for world freedom going on at the time.