<<  <  >  >>

Page 22

indeed the incentive, to identify themselves to the INS.

Moreover, valid asylum claimants would not be denied access

to protection simply because they failed to meet an arbi-

trary filing deadline.

A second amendment would pertain to the expedited

removal procedures.  Those procedures would be limited to

emergency situations in which the number of arriving aliens

increases dramatically within a brief period, thereby over-

whelming the regular asylum adjudication processes.  In such

emergency situations, the attorney general could use an

expedited removal procedure to screen clearly frivolous and

unfounded claimants.  That limitation would be consistent

with the policy objective of eliminating fraud, by subject-

ing arriving aliens with manifestly unfounded claims to the

expedited removal process.  Yet it would also more effec-

tively safeguard against the removal of claimants who have

legitimate claims but who are unable to articulate the claim

in detail shortly after arriving.  That method is also pref-

erable to the ad hoc responses of the United States to

recent mass migrations.

Conclusion

The current anti-immigrant trend should not be permit-

ted to diminish the valued role of the United States as a

haven for democracy and fundamental freedom.  Since before

America's founding, people have fled to this land to escape

persecution by their governments at home.  Whether from

England, Germany, Russia, or Africa, refugees recognize that

the U.S. government acknowledges and respects their right to

believe what they believe and to be who they are, free from

oppression.

In keeping with America's tradition, every effort

should be made to lessen the random impact of the new laws

on genuine victims of human rights abuses.  That can be

achieved in the short term by including safeguards to pro-

tect genuine asylum seekers in the asylum and expedited

removal processes.  The safeguards would be designed to

prevent the return of genuine victims of human rights abuses

to countries where they would face persecution, torture, or

death.  In the long term, the utility of the provisions

should be revisited.  Let us not end America's ideal of

offering a haven to the world's oppressed.