Mr. Speaker. the front page of the Washington Post yesterday had the harsh and ugly reality. We cannot afford not to help the Iraqis who trusted and worked with the United States with the opportunity for refugee status. I quote: "The American Ambassador in Baghdad. Ryan Crocker. has asked the Bush administration to take the unusual step of granting immigrant visas to all Iraqis employed by the United States Government in Iraq because of growing concern that they will quit and flee the country if they cannot be assured of eventual safe passage to the United States." For the last 7 months. I have been working with a broad bipartisan group of people on legislation that would deal with the largest ongoing humanitarian crisis in the world other than Darfur. And unlike the tragedy in the Darfur region of the Sudan. the United States is front and center in Iraq.
Keywords matched
immigrant visas refugee