U.S. Moves to Speed Soviet Immigration

Goaded by a growing backlog of Soviet citizens trying to enter the United States, the Bush Administration asked Congress on Wednesday to allow admission of as many as 30,000 immigrants a year for “foreign policy reasons.”

The bill, drafted by the departments of State and Justice, would establish a five-year program to admit persons who fail to qualify as refugees because they cannot establish a well-founded fear of persecution in their home country and who do not satisfy normal immigration standards.

Although the bill does not cite specific nationalities, the Administration said it was aimed at Soviet citizens--mostly Jews, Armenians and evangelical Christians--who are leaving the Soviet Union in increasing numbers under President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s relaxed emigration policy.

More than 19,000 Soviets are waiting to be interviewed at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow for permission to enter the United States as refugees, and another 7,000 are waiting in temporary quarters near Rome. About 4,000 Soviets a month are seeking to settle in the United States.

The sudden outpouring of Soviet citizens has swamped the U.S. government’s refugee program, which pays transportation costs and provides welfare benefits to eligible persons.

Under the proposed new classification, qualifying immigrants would receive none of the financial benefits extended to refugees but would be eligible to become U.S. citizens.

By easing the oppression of earlier years, Gorbachev’s policy has produced a dilemma for Soviet emigrants. The very fact that emigration has become easier has tended to undermine the claims of political persecution on which refugee status is based.

The proposed statute would authorize the President to designate classes of aliens whose admission “is deemed for foreign policy reasons to be in the national interest.”

Apply for ‘Parole’

The Reagan Administration had promised that all Soviet citizens seeking to enter the United States would be permitted to do so. Those who failed to qualify as refugees were invited to apply for a “parole” from Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh.

The parole status has been unpopular with potential immigrants, however, because it does not permit them to become eligible for U.S. citizenship.

“This legislation is far superior to the exercise of my parole authority--which is only a stop-gap response--as it will allow these people to enter as permanent residents and qualify for limited social welfare benefits that are not available to parolees,” Thornburgh said.

He noted that the legislation would also extend eligibility for U.S. citizenship to parolees admitted between Aug. 15, 1988, and Sept. 30, 1989.

Most of the Soviets awaiting U.S. visas in Rome are Jews who left the Soviet Union with visas to Israel but decided instead to settle in the United States. Under Soviet law, it is usually easier for a Jew to obtain permission to move to Israel than to the United States. Many Soviet Jews who apply for permission to go to Israel have no intention of doing so.

The situation has long been a cause of friction between Israel and the United States, because Israel wants the Soviet Jews to settle there. The United States maintains that emigrants should have freedom of choice.

Avi Pazner, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, said Secretary of State James A. Baker III told Shamir on Wednesday that although the United States has not softened its support for freedom of choice, he believes that persons with visas for Israel should go there.

Pazner also said Shamir suggested that Soviet Jews who want to settle in the United States should apply for U.S. visas and remain in the Soviet Union until they are granted, instead of going to Rome, where living conditions for emigrants in transit have become overcrowded.