Sen. Herbert H. Lehman attacked this weekend the Administration’s “mishandling” of the emergency refugee immigration program and called President Eisenhower’s Emergency Refugee Immigration Act a “tragic disappointment.” The Senator added that “the bottlenecks and booby traps written into the law and the incredible red tape established by the Administration have combined to frustrate the basic purpose of the Act,” which was the admission of 214,000 refugees.
Earlier, Scott McLeod, State Department security officer and administration of the Refugee Relief Act of 1953, criticized the provisions of the emergency act, blaming them for the fact that so few refugees had arrived here under the terms of the act. He suggested some liberalization of the features of the act, but expressed doubt that even this would make it possible for 200,000 to arrive in this country before the law expired.
Mr. McLeod reported that up to last December 31, 17, 050 visas were granted to refugees qualified under the act but that only 13, 056 of these refugees had arrived in this country.
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