[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 135 (Wednesday, October 25, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1932]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                FOR THE RELIEF OF PERSIAN GULF EVACUEES

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. NICK J. RAHALL II

                            of west virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 24, 2000

  Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3646, a 
bill I introduced to grant permanent immigrant status to those families 
who were evacuated from Kuwait for safety reasons by the United States 
Government prior to United States military intervention against Iraq's 
invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
  These families have been cleared by INS and the FBI, and have been 
found to be hard-working, self-sufficient individuals, who have been in 
limbo for nearly a decade while awaiting adjustment of their status.
  None of these individuals have ever been a ward of the State, but 
have found jobs and resources necessary to make themselves completely 
self-supporting citizens of this country.
  I wish to express my deep gratitude to my colleagues, Immigration 
Subcommittee Chairman Lamar Smith, and Judiciary Committee Chairman 
Henry Hyde, and their hard working staff, for the effort that they have 
made to bring this bill to fruition.
  It was a long, hard journey of cooperation and coordination among 
subcommittee and full committee staff, the Immigration and 
Naturalization Service, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, whose 
job it was to do an in-depth investigation of the Persian Gulf evacuees 
during their 10 year hiatus in the United States, and to find them 
worthy of permanent status.
  All these efforts, individually and collectively have brought us to 
today's passage of H.R. 3646, granting permanent immigrant status to 
those people who have come to be known as Persian Gulf evacuees.
  Again, I thank my colleagues for their support of this important 
legislation to assist these families in securing the right to remain in 
the United States after our government evacuated them from Kuwait at 
the start of the Persian Gulf war, to ensure their safety.

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