Rep. Anthony Beilenson (D.Calif.) urged Attorney General Griffin Bell last Friday to enable Iranian Jews in the United States to extend their stay and receive permission to work “until the situation in their country becomes more stable.”
Beilenson said that “many Iranian citizens, especially Iranian Jews, “are in “a genuine dilemma about what action to take when their visitor or student visas expire. They are law-abiding people who do not wish to break U.S. law by accepting employment, but are unable to receive money from home until events in Iran stabilize.”
He said he was “especially concerned about the precarious situation facing Iranian Jews who believe they may be persecuted as a religious minority if they return to Iran at this time.” Beilenson said the Immigration and Naturalization Service should institute “immediately a specific program” to help the Iranians so that they will “not live with the fear that once their visas expire in the United States they will be forced either to return home or be in violation of U.S. immigration law.”
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