U.S. Will Continue Screening Soviet Jews for Refugee Status

The Bush administration has no intention of changing its case-by-case evaluations of Soviet Jews applying to come to the United States as refugees, Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Alan Nelson told Congress Thursday.

Prior to last fall, Soviet Jews wishing to immigrate to the United States were automatically granted refugee status. But since Sept. 14, 1,470 Soviet Jews have been denied admission as refugees, according to figures provided by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the principal group helping Soviet Jews enter the United States.

And the rate of refusal is increasing. Last month, 37 percent of all Soviet Jews who applied for U.S. refugee status were turned down by immigration authorities, HIAS said.

Immigration authorities have been more selective about granting refugee status, because they expect the number of Soviet citizens who want to enter the United States to greatly exceed the congressionally mandated quota of 25,000 for this fiscal year.

HIAS President Ben Zion Leuchter told the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, refugees and international law Thursday that it projects 19,000 additional refugees will seek to enter the country during this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

Adding 19,000 refugee slots would allow about 31,000 Soviet Jewish refugees to enter the United States this fiscal year, said Leuchter.

WILL REACH QUOTA BY APRIL 20

HIAS expects the U.S. refugee quota for the Soviet Union to be exhausted by April 20.

Congress and the Bush administration are under pressure to approve one of several pending bills that would raise the worldwide refugee ceiling and commit new federal funds.

On Wednesday, Jonathan Moore, the U.S. coordinator for refugee affairs, informed the subcommittee that President Bush has approved emergency consultations with Congress to raise the refugee admissions ceiling.

Now Congress must formulate a compromise piece of legislation, based on the following alternatives:

Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) has proposed creating 19,000 new Soviet refugee slots and 2,000 more to be apportioned among various Eastern European countries, including the Soviet Union.

Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Robert Kasten (R-Wis.) have proposed creating 25,000 new Soviet refugee slots. Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.) has introduced a similar proposal.

Various Jewish groups have endorsed the Berman bill, which would borrow money from federal grant programs to states and repay the funds in fiscal year 1991.

The other bills would require new money to be spent by Congress. So would an $85 million administration plan, which would increase the Soviet refugee ceiling this fiscal year from 19,000 to 43,500.

The subcommittee chairman, Rep, Bruce Morrison (D-Conn.), has drafted, but not introduced, yet another bill, which would automatically grant refugee status to all emigrating Soviet Jews and Pentacostals.

Nelson of the Immigration and Naturalization Service said he opposes a “presumption of that magnitude.”

Currently, the burden of proof is on applicants for refugee status to convince INS adjudicators that they face a “well-founded fear of persecution.”

EXAMPLE OF ‘ELIGIBLE’ REFUSENIK

Nelson indirectly addressed that concern in his testimony Thursday, giving an example of a “clearly eligible Jewish refusenik” for refugee status, who is from “an area of the Ukraine which has a long history of anti-Semitism.”

By contrast, a Jewish family from the eastern Soviet republic of Uzbekistan was found by INS adjudicators ineligible for refugee status.

“When specifically questioned about anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union, the response was that they never had experienced it but had heard it exists,” Nelson said. “Their two young sons wore yarmulkes to the interview, as they do every day when attending their ethnically mixed preschool.”

Nelson confirmed that immigration authorities began using more stringent criteria in awarding refugee status on the basis of an Aug. 4, 1988, memorandum written by then Attorney General Edwin Meese. It urged “more equitable and legally appropriate application of existing U.S. refugee law worldwide.”

He attributed the recent increase in the refusal rate to “phased implementation of the worldwide adjudication standard.”

The Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, which also testified at the hearings Thursday, applauded the subcommittee for attempting to address the refugee backlog crisis.

“We are pleased to see the genuine concern and motivation on the part of so many members of Congress to find a solution to this problem,” Pamela Cohen, president of the Union of Councils, said in a statement.