Thornburgh Acts to Admit 2,000 Soviet Jews Monthly to U.S.

Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh moved today to ease the way for Jewish emigres from the Soviet Union to be allowed into the United States.

Thornburgh announced he was expanding the attorney general’s parole authority to admit up to 2,000 Soviet emigres each month from Moscow plus all Soviet emigres in Rome who cannot be admitted under current constraints.

Thornburgh said he was taking the step, which he called an interim measure, “in response to a request” from Secretary of State George P. Shultz.

Thornburgh also ordered Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Alan Nelson to temporarily transfer a Russian-speaking INS officer to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to handle refugee applications, rather than in early January when the quarterly process normally begins.

Jewish organizations say that 173 Soviet Jews have been denied refugee status by U.S. officials in Rome since September. The organizations also say that a growing number of other Jews seeking visas from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow have been told by U.S. diplomats there to expect delays of a year or more.

The problem stems from the fact that the Reagan Administration last summer stopped granting automatic political refugee status to Soviet Jews and other Soviet citizens.

Since September, Soviet Jews have been leaving at the rate of 2,000 a month, a rate which U.S. officials expect will continue, and roughly 90% of them seek to resettle in the United States.

Karl Zukerman, executive vice president of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, said earlier this week that the State Department has told his organization that it will have only about $27 million available during fiscal 1989, enough to pay for transporting only 12,000 Soviet Jews.

Thornburgh also said he has asked “as part of a longer term solution” that the Justice Department’s Office of Legislative Affairs work with the State Department in developing a legislative proposal to resolve the problem.

“Part of the solution will include the establishment of a special immigrant class that would permit the entry of a limited number of applicants who face special circumstances,” Thornburgh said.