[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 129 (Wednesday, September 24, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9895-S9896]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. HOLLINGS:
  S. 1217. A bill for the relief of Olga Gorgiladze; to the Committee 
on the Judiciary.


                       PRIVATE RELIEF LEGISLATION

  Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I am introducing a bill today that will 
grant permanent residency in the United States to Olga Gorgiladze.

  I serve as the ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee that 
has jurisdiction and oversight over both the Immigration and 
Naturalization Service and the Executive Office for Immigration Review. 
I can tell you that with respect to Mrs. Gorgiladze's case--they have 
missed the mark. They have done this woman an injustice. It is a wrong 
that this Senate and this Congress should make right.
  Olga Gorgiladze's case is a special situation that involves the 
turmoil and changes that came with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the 
collapse of the Soviet Union. In September 1991, Mrs. Gorgiladze came 
to the United States to stay with her lifelong friend, Merilyn Hodgson. 
Three months later the Soviet Union was dissolved and civil and ethnic 
war broke out in Georgia, the Soviet Republic where Mrs. Gorgiladze's 
husband was from. She applied for asylum in this country in March 1992. 
INS and the Executive Office of Immigration Review finally got to her 
case in late 1995 and turned down her request. They instructed Mrs. 
Gorgiladze to obtain Georgian citizenship and to leave for that 
country. The irony, of course, is that Olga Gorgiladze is not now and 
never has been a Georgian citizen. In fact, quite the contrary she 
fears for her safety should she be forced to go to that nation. She 
loves the United States. She loves our democratic society that protects 
freedom of speech and religion. Most importantly, she feels safe in a 
nation that has racial and ethnic diversity. The reality is that Olga 
Gorgiladze wants to become an American, not a Georgian citizen.
  Olga Gorgiladze is not even ethnically Georgian. She is half Chinese 
and half Russian. She was born in China in 1940 to a Russian father and 
a Chinese mother. Her father was a naval officer in the Tsarist navy 
and fought against the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution. Her 
mother met Mrs. Gorgiladze's father in Shanghai where he had fled after 
the war. Olga grew up in China, speaking Chinese. But, once again in 
1954, her family had to flee another violent Communist takeover--and 
her father moved the family back to the Soviet Union. They were sent to 
work on the undeveloped desert lands of Kazakhstan. In 1959, after her 
father died of cancer she was given permission by the Soviet 
authorities to move to Sukhami, Georgia, near the Russian border.
  In 1971, Olga graduated from the Teachers College of Foreign 
Languages where she majored in English. However, she was denied a 
teaching position because preference was given to Georgians. She 
finally got a job as a part-time teacher at the college from which she 
graduated, but was later fired when all classes for Russian speaking 
groups were terminated. Despite her advanced education--equivalent to a 
masters degree in this country--she has continually been forced to take 
low-paying clerk positions because of discrimination against her as a 
non-Georgian. Other discriminations displayed against her included 
housing which is controlled by the state and purchasing of food and 
supplies.
  Since 1991, the Caucasus nations have been plagued by ethnic strife 
and warfare. We have all watched the violence and bloodshed in the 
Abkhaszia region of Georgia, between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-
Karabakh, and the war in Chechneya. Less well televised is the 
hostility and persecution of outsiders and ethnic minorities. In 
Georgia, there is hostility to anything or anyone affiliated with 
Russia. As a woman who looks Chinese, speaks only Russian and English, 
Olga Gorgiladze has been subject to countless incidents of verbal, 
physical, and mental abuse. Mrs. Gorgiladze does not and cannot blend 
into the Georgian population. She has been beaten, spit on, verbally 
and physically abused. Her safety and livelihood have always felt 
threatened every minute of every day while living in Georgia. For 
example, while riding the bus, Mrs. Gorgiladze has been beaten and 
threatened with knifes, chains, and various other weapons.
  Her husband of 25 years, Malkhaz Gorgiladze, stayed in Georgia and 
warned Olga of the dangers posed to her if she returned to that 
country. He encouraged her to seek asylum in the United States and 
collected evidence for her hearing. He especially worked to document 
police inactivity and the Georgian officials' complicity in attacks on 
non-Georgians by violent nationalist groups. The police warned him to 
stop his efforts. Malkhaz Gorgiladze began to receive anonymous phone 
calls and threats and warnings to stop criticizing the police. In 1996, 
while returning home from a New Year's Eve gathering, his car was 
rammed by a Georgian police car and Olga's husband was killed.
  When asked by the immigration judges at Justice, our State Department 
reported that Georgia is in a state of cease-fire and everybody is 
getting along with each other. Further, the Justice Department 
conjectured that if the Georgian police wanted Olga's husband killed, 
the would have used means other than an auto accident involving a 
police car. The INS and immigration judges down there at the Justice 
Department have used this information and conclusions to deny Mrs. 
Gorgiladze's request for asylum. Yet, there were numerous letters and 
affidavits by witnesses regarding Malkhaz Gorgiladze's murder. And, in 
Georgia, the ultranationalists blame non-Georgians, and in particular 
blame Russians, for all their misfortunes and lack of economic 
development. Friends and relatives of Olga Gorgiladze have warned her 
that she should not return. They tell her that she will never be able 
to get a job and always will be an outcast. They say she will be 
considered a traitor. And, Malkhaz will not be there to try and defend 
her as in the past. In short, they fear for her safety, as do I.
  Mrs. Gorgiladze's case is truly heart-wrenching. And, here is a woman 
I might add--that has worked for the last 5 years at MCI Customer 
Service Representative International Department and turned around and 
paid her taxes to the State of Virginia and the U.S. Government. In my 
view, she has been an outstanding resident in our Nation who serves as 
an example of the American dream. She has never broken any law and has 
never been on welfare or asked the Government for handouts. She has 
followed the immigration rules every step of the way. She is what 
America is all about. What astonishes me is why the Justice Department 
would want to deport this 57-year-old woman.
  Mr. President, I have served in the U.S. Senate over 30 years. Every 
now and then we get an opportunity to stand up for someone who the 
Federal bureaucracy has mistreated. This is one of those times. Olga 
Gorgiladze's situation has touched me. Since her friend brought the 
case to my attention, I can't stop thinking about how unfair it seems. 
I've sat in Senate hearing after hearing on the Immigration and 
Naturalization Service asking why action is not taken to deport illegal 
aliens who got into this country through deception. I have listened to 
this administration try to explain how in 1996 they naturalized 
thousands of aliens with criminal backgrounds. And, I find it 
astonishing, these very same Justice immigration judges have ruled in 
separate cases that homosexuality per se does constitute a legitimate 
claim for asylum. But, in this case we have a woman who came to the 
United States legally, who is not and never has been a citizen of 
Georgia, who had her husband killed by

[[Page S9896]]

Georgian authorities, who legitimately fears for her safety if sent 
there, who has complied with all the United States immigration laws, 
and who has paid her own way and has not been a burden to taxpayers in 
this country--and this is who the Justice Department wants to deny 
asylum and deport? Maybe I should forgo this bill and simply tell Olga 
to pretend that she is homosexual. This is injustice. This is just 
simply wrong.
  Mr. President, I am introducing this bill today because the system is 
not working. I believe that Olga Gorgiladze has legitimate reasons to 
fear being deported to Georgia. She is not Georgian and does not belong 
in that country. It is ludicrous for the United States Government to be 
ordering her to apply for Georgian citizenship. What she has 
demonstrated is that she does belong in this country. In her case the 
system has failed and I think it is incumbent upon the United States 
Senate to put things right. I am pleased to sponsor this bill. I intend 
to work with the Judiciary Committee, with Senators Abraham, Kennedy, 
Hatch, and Leahy, to ensure that Mrs. Olga Gorgiladze is permitted to 
remain in the United States.
                                 ______