Their Teeming Shores

A REFUGEE, according to the U.S. Refugee Act of 1980, is a person who is “persecuted or who has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” In fact, the refugee program, which accounts for one in seven legal immigrants to the U.S., in large measure has become an expensive special-interest program, which Senator Alan Simpson calls “embarrassing to all of us who truly know the mission of the Refugee Act.”

The Act was originally used to expedite resettlement of some of our allies in the Vietnam War. Eighteen years after the war we still accept about 50,000 Southeast Asians (mostly from Vietnam) each year. Last year, about 85 per cent of the refugee quota, determined annually by the President in consultation with Congress, was split between Southeast Asians and former Soviets.

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Don Barnett

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A REFUGEE, according to the U.S. Refugee Act of 1980, is a person who is “persecuted or who has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” In fact, the refugee program, which accounts for one in seven legal immigrants to the U.S., in large measure has become an expensive special-interest program, which Senator Alan Simpson calls “embarrassing to all of us who truly know the mission of the Refugee Act.”

The Act was originally used to expedite resettlement of some of our allies in the Vietnam War. Eighteen years after the war we still accept about 50,000 Southeast Asians (mostly from Vietnam) each year. Last year, about 85 per cent of the refugee quota, determined annually by the President in consultation with Congress, was split between Southeast Asians and former Soviets.