Help for Salvadoran Refugees

The Reagan Administration has quietly shelved a request by El Salvador’s President Jose Napoleon Duarte that illegal immigrants from his country be given special status in the United States while a bloody civil war in their homeland continues. The hypocrisy and sheer cynicism of the Administration’s handling of Salvadoran refugees has never been more apparent.

There may be as many as 500,000 Salvadorans living illegally in the country, perhaps half of them in the Los Angeles area. They have fled a chaotic political situation in which 60,000 people have died in the last seven years and an economy hampered not just by war, but by a major earthquake last September. Like other illegal immigrants who have come to this country, they have made better lives for themselves in the United States, and send millions of dollars home to relatives in El Salvador.

Fully aware of his countrymen’s plight, and the important contribution they make to the Salvadoran economy, Duarte wrote to President Reagan recently asking that a special effort be made to protect them from the effects of the new U.S. immigration law. Most Salvadorans here are believed to have entered the United States after Jan. 1, 1982, which makes them ineligible for legalization. To prevent their deportation by U.S. immigration officials, Duarte asked that Salvadoran illegals arrested in the United States be granted a special status known in U.S. immigration law as “extended voluntary departure,” or EVD. An immigrant with that status admits to being in the United States illegally, but is allowed to remain in this country temporarily, until social or political turmoil in his home country ends.

Giving Salvadorans EVD status has been suggested in the past by members of Congress and refugee-assistance specialists. It is a simple administrative solution to a difficult human problem. The Administration has held back from taking that easy step because it did not want to be seen encouraging illegal immigrants to stay in the United States, and because it might be perceived as an indirect criticism of Duarte. The White House is reluctant to admit that a civilian government receiving so much U.S. aid to fight leftist guerrillas may have a less-than-perfect record on human rights.

The cynicism of the Administration’s position was exposed, however, when Duarte showed no hesitation about seeking special refugee status for his countrymen. It was a reasonable and humane request. If the Administration won’t reconsider it, Congress must act.