U.S. Will Review Status of 4,200 Soviet Jews : INS Ordered to Reopen Cases of Applicants Denied Admission as Refugees

Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh, responding to congressional criticism of the Bush Administration’s refugee policy, Thursday ordered immigration authorities to reopen the cases of 4,200 Soviet Jews in Italy whose applications for refugee status have been denied.

“I want to make absolutely certain that each and every Soviet emigre who is eligible for admission to this country as a refugee is adjudicated as such,” Thornburgh said in a letter to James L. Buck, acting commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Thornburgh’s actions stop short of overturning a controversial directive issued last year by the Administration of former President Ronald Reagan, which stripped Soviet Jews of blanket status as refugees and instituted case-by-case reviews.

Called Significant Step

But one advocate of expanded refugee efforts for Soviet Jews said Thornburgh has taken a significant step in that direction.

“It’s a tilt in the direction (of changing the Reagan policy) . . . without acknowledging a total reversal,” said California Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City).

Berman said the gesture effectively retracts a statement by a senior State Department official Wednesday that Soviet Jews “can always go to Israel or return to Russia” if their applications for refugee status are rejected by the United States.

“It’s an effort to erase (the official’s) testimony,” Berman said.

A Justice Department official said Thornburgh’s directive also will aid the cases of another 16,000 Soviet emigres in Italy who have applied for refugee status and are awaiting word from the INS.

Persecution at Issue

“In considering whether an individual had been subjected to persecution or would hold a well-founded fear of persecution . . . each case will be reviewed with due regard for the environment to which the person would be exposed in the Soviet Union,” Thornburgh wrote. “In no case would any such person be returned to the Soviet Union.”

The attorney general’s directive presses upon a reluctant INS a more open standard of admission that is espoused by the State Department.

In a May, 1989, memorandum to INS, the State Department concluded that despite improvements, “widespread anti-Semitic discrimination is still encountered at the lower levels of government bureaucracy throughout the Soviet Union.”

The State Department memorandum said many Soviet Jews have reason to fear that the possible fall of Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev would bring back “the kind of official anti-Semitism that was in vogue prior to 1987.” The department also noted that “this official, institutional anti-Semitism would now be exacerbated by the recent populist appeal of virulent Pamyat activity.”

Pamyat is the name of a populist anti-Semitic group that has become vocal in the wake of the Soviet Union’s policy of glasnost, or openness.

In hearings this week, lawmakers have cited the State Department’s findings and urged the Bush Administration to repudiate the case-by-case review of Soviet Jews. They urged the Administration to make the presumption of continuing anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union the key factor in INS deliberations.

Under questioning, Acting Commissioner Buck acknowledged Wednesday that he was unaware of the State Department memo, which was prepared for use by the INS in considering refugee applications by Soviet Jews.

Thornburgh’s moves came as members of the House panel bitterly criticized a Bush Administration plan to begin processing the applications of potential Soviet refugees exclusively in Moscow rather than in Rome and Vienna.

At an acrimonious hearing of a House subcommittee on immigration and refugee policy, lawmakers charged that the State Department and the INS have failed to devote the manpower or resources to accomplish the proposed shift by Oct. 1.

The result, said Rep. Lawrence J. Smith (D-Fla.), will be a “great debacle” for persecuted Soviet minorities, who could languish for years in the Soviet Union. The policy change could subject them to more intense persecution as they await processing of their refugee requests, Smith said.

Administration officials acknowledged that only three INS agents will be in place in Moscow when the shift is to occur. By the end of the year, the number of INS agents in Moscow would rise to six--far short of the number needed to deal with a torrent of new applications, according to legislative critics.

Times staff writers Ronald J. Ostrow and Alan C. Miller contributed to this report.