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I just looked into the details of the Senate Subcommittee hearing on H.R 1560 and here are the key notes:
Following is the testimoney made by Dan Stein,Executive Director
Federation for American Immigration Reform
(This group opposes the HR1560)
"The first of the reforms would decouple the grant of asylum from permanent residence. International practice demonstrates that there is no standard requiring us to grant permanent residence to asylees. There is no reason that a bona fide asylum applicant can not be admitted as a nonimmigrant with the right to work in the United States. That status should not be adjusted to permanent residence until after a minimum of five years. There is no reason that a person who has shown the resourcefulness to get to the U.S. to ask for asylum should be accorded welfare benefits and other public assistance that should be reserved to our most needy citizens. As international circumstances change, the asylum status should be periodically reviewed to determine whether the original circumstances that led to the asylum grant have been reversed. In that case, when the fear of persecution is no longer valid, the asylees should be required to return home. Similarly, an asylum grantee should face a presumption that a fear of persecution no longer exists if he or she travels back to the home country.
The advantage of the adoption of this reform is that it would discourage the still sizable number of asylum applicants who see asylum as a way to permanent residence in the United States, even if their main objective is not the public assistance that comes with a grant of asylum. "
Following is the statement made by Elanor Acer, SENIOR COORDINATOR, ASYLUM PROGRAM LAWYERS COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
(Testified in Support to HR1560)
". The Cap on Asylee Adjustments
When refugees are granted asylum, they are entitled under our law to apply for legal permanent residence status one year after their grant of asylum. But as there is an annual cap on the number of asylees who may adjustment and a backlog of applications, refugees now have to wait several years to receive their legal permanent residence status. Amchok Gyamtso Thubten, a Tibetan refugee who will be testifying before you shortly, applied for legal permanent residence status in 1999. He has still not received his “green card.” It has been estimated that someone granted asylum today will not be able to adjust his or her status for 6 six years. The impact of this delay on refugees is significant – it undermines their ability to integrate into our society, to seek employment and advancement, to apply for citizenship, to travel to visit family securely and in some cases to be united with family members.
One client of the Lawyers Committee, a refugee from Ethiopia, married after she was granted asylum. Her husband, a long-time family friend who lived in exile in Europe, was not eligible to be brought to the U.S. as an asylee because the marriage occurred after our client was granted asylum. The delay of several years in receiving her green card needlessly delayed her ability to petition for him to come to the United States and join her. While she visits him several times a year, the couple has been separated by an ocean for their four-year marriage. Because of the marriage, the U.S. has refused to issue the husband a visa to come to visit his wife and child. Their son, now 3 years old, sees his father for brief visits once a year. They hope that after she becomes a citizen, they will finally be able to live together as a family. My client, who spent her childhood separated from her family because of the cruelty of the Menguistu regime, is patient. But no reasonable policy interest is served by this unnecessary delay.
The cap on asylee adjustments should be lifted. Those who are granted asylum are entitled, under our law, to apply for permanent residency one year after their grant of asylum. These are deserving individuals, many of whom have suffered terribly under governments who abuse the basic rights we in this country take for granted. Their welcome into our society should not be delayed for years by an arbitrary limit on the number on asylees that can become legal permanent residents."