[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 768 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        S.768

                       One Hundred Fifth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE FIRST SESSION

          Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,
 the seventh day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven


                                 An Act


 
  For the relief of Michel Christopher Meili, Giuseppina Meili, Mirjam 
                     Naomi Meili, and Davide Meili.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
        (1) The actions of Swiss banks and their relations with Nazi 
    Germany before and during World War II and the banks' actions after 
    the war concerning former Nazi loot and heirless assets placed in 
    the banks before the war have been the subject of an extensive and 
    ongoing inquiry by the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban 
    Affairs of the Senate and a study by a United States interagency 
    group.
        (2) On January 8, 1997, Michel Christopher Meili, while 
    performing his duties as a security guard at the Union Bank of 
    Switzerland in Zurich, Switzerland, discovered that bank employees 
    were shredding important Holocaust-era documents.
        (3) Mr. Meili was able to save some of the documents from 
    destruction and then turned them over to the Jewish community in 
    Zurich and to the Swiss police.
        (4) Following Mr. Meili's disclosure of the destruction of the 
    Holocaust-era documents, Mr. Meili was suspended and then 
    terminated from his job. He was also interrogated by the local 
    Swiss authorities who tried to intimidate him by threatening 
    prosecution for his heroic actions.
        (5) Since this disclosure, Mr. Meili and his family have been 
    threatened and harassed, and have received many death threats. Mr. 
    Meili also received a hand-delivered note threatening the 
    kidnapping of his children in return for the ``Jewish money'' he 
    would receive for his actions, and urging him to emigrate to the 
    United States or be killed.
        (6) Because of his courageous actions, Mr. Meili and his family 
    have suffered economic hardship, mental anguish, and have been 
    forced to live in fear for their lives.

SEC. 2. PERMANENT RESIDENCE.

    Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for purposes of the 
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.), Michel 
Christopher Meili, Giuseppina Meili, Mirjam Naomi Meili, and Davide 
Meili shall be held and considered to have been lawfully admitted to 
the United States for permanent residence as of the date of the 
enactment of this Act upon payment of the required visa fees.

SEC. 3. REDUCTION OF NUMBER OF AVAILABLE VISAS.

    Upon the granting of permanent residence to Michel Christopher 
Meili, Giuseppina Meili, Mirjam Naomi Meili, and Davide Meili as 
provided in this Act, the Secretary of State shall instruct the proper 
officer to reduce by the appropriate number during the current fiscal 
year the total number of immigrant visas available to natives of the 
country of the aliens' birth under section 203(a) of the Immigration 
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1153(a)).

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

                            Vice President of the United States and    
                                               President of the Senate.