The legality of the “parole authority” held by the U.S. Attorney General under which aliens, including Soviet Jews, may be admitted to the United States within his discretion is to undergo Congressional scrutiny. Rep. Joshua Eilberg (D. Pa.), newly elected chairman of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee One, announced that his group will work on “clarification of the laws governing ‘parole’ which is an emergency immigration permit.”
The legislation proposed in the last Congress to authorize admission of up to 30,000 Soviet Jews into the U.S. was shelved by its sponsor when the then Attorney General John Mitchell said that he is authorized to admit an unlimited number of immigrants and the legislation therefore was unnecessary. Sponsors of the legislation hailed the Attorney General’s statement, since, they said, it meant more than 30,000 Soviet Jews could be admitted into the country.
However, some activists for Soviet Jews felt that the parole authority was not an adequate substitute for legislation. Eilberg, a member of the Judiciary Committee since he came to Congress in 1967, said: “The regulations regarding parole are so vague that the Attorney General can never be sure his decision will not be overruled by the courts. This can have the effect of making him overly cautious when requests are made for parole.”
The subcommittee, Eilberg said, will also look into what he described as the increasing number of illegal aliens in the United States, the “inequities” in laws governing emigration from countries in the western hemisphere, and charges of inefficiency in the immigration and naturalization service.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
