Mr. President. I want to note my disappointment that the permanent relief for Haitian refugees that I and many others in this body have worked to make law has been dropped from the Treasury Appropriations Conference Report. This effort began last year during debate of the D.C. Appropriations bill. which included language that granted certain Central Americans access to the "suspension of deportation" procedure. but Haitians were not granted this access. And you may recall that while I supported granting relief to the affected class of Central Americans. I. along with several of my colleagues here in the Senate and the House. fought vigorously for additional provisions for Haitian refugees. Although we were unsuccessful in that effort. we later introduced S. 1504. Haitian Immigrations Fairness Act of 1997. legislation that would provide Haitian refugees permanent residency status. During the course of this year. this legislation was reported favorably out of the Judiciary committee and passed by the Senate as a provision of the TreasuryPostal Appropriations Fiscal Year 1999 bill. Eventually. this language was agreed to by the Conferees on the TreasuryPostal Appropriations bill.
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refugees Immigrations deportation