President George Bush. in airlifting them out of Kuwait during those perilous days just prior to U.S. Military intervention. did so to protect their lives. He gave the evacuees five years of "safe harbor" in the United States during which time the evacuees made every effort to adjust their status to that of permanent immigrant. After President Bush left office. President Clinton extended their stay here for an additional two years. At the time of the airlift. more than 2.000 individuals were involved. during the intervening years. all but 62 individuals and families have "adjusted" their status and have gained permanent immigrant status in the United States where. as I have said. they are selfsupporting and have brought no financial burden upon the United States for their care and keeping. These 62 remaining individuals and families have not had their status adjusted in the intervening years because many of them ran into barriers between themselves and the Immigration and Naturalization Service [INS] that kept appropriate interviews from being conducted with the evacuees and further kept the FBI from starting and completing necessary background checks on the evacuees to assure they had committed no crimes while in the United States. Today. I have reintroduced a Private Relief Bill naming 62 individuals and families who are known as Persian Gulf evacuees [PGEs] and I urge my colleagues to join with me to serve those evacuees who may live in your Congressional District to ensure appropriate action is taken this year to grant them permanent immigrant status in the United States.
Keywords matched
immigrant Naturalization Immigration