Madam Speaker. I have the privilege of representing one of the largest VietnameseAmerican communities in the United States right in Orange County. almost 300.000 people. They are the parents. the siblings and the offspring of families who fought communism for 2 decades. and the majority of my constituents feel that economic relations with Vietnam should not be established until specific emigration. political and human rights issues are addressed. The Orange County Register. one of the newspapers in our area. conducted informal reader polls and found huge multiracial majorities opposed the immediate lifting of the waiver. During this past year. many of my constituents have also contacted my office directly. In this debate I am their voice. JacksonVanik is about emigration. then trade. Normalize emigration. move towards normalizing trade. Waiving the JacksonVanik requirement for Vietnam on March 10 was a mistake. This decision only makes it harder for many Vietnamese to reunite with their families. The simple truth is that the Vietnamese Government does not meet the conditions of free emigration. Authorities have denied United States officials access to the vast majority of returnees who are eligible to emigrate. In other words. the way it was changed was that. first. one had to get an exit permit in order to be interviewed by the United States to see if one could come to the United States. and now they have changed that. Now they have the exit permit at the back end.
Keywords matched
emigration emigrate