Kurdish terrorists who are terrorizing Turkey might come into the United States or Basque terrorists who are terrorizing Spain might come into the United States or the example of Hamas terrorizing Israel might come into the United States. The fact is that the existing law is adequate to keep out such individuals. and supporters of this amendment have not met the burden of showing that the law should be changed in the way they have proposed. Secretary Rice recently exercised the waiver to pave the way for the resettlement of 9.300 ethnic Karen refugees housed in a camp in Thailand who backed the Karen National Union. So we have. under existing law. methods for recognizing that some individuals may be acting under duress. that they may not be terrorists. That is the kind of an analysis which can best be made by the Secretary of State. as opposed to the very different concept of litigating such matters. And when you are dealing on the floor of the Senate with redefining material support. redefining what is a terrorist organization. that simply is not the way to legislate. I have great respect for Senator LEAHY. He and I have worked together to craft this immigration reform bill. He and I have structured the hearing list and could have had a hearing on this. had it been deemed important and had it been deemed necessary to correct a major problem. but it wasnt because existing law is satisfactory to address the problem of individuals providing material support under duress. It is difficult for me to oppose Senator LEAHY. the ranking member of the committee. with whom I have worked so closely.
Keywords matched
refugees immigration