[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 17]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 25371]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                FOR THE RELIEF OF PERSIAN GULF EVACUEES

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON-LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 24, 2000

  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of a bill 
that unanimously passed the Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims and 
our Full committee. This private relief bill on behalf of 54 families 
and individuals seeking permanent resident status in the United States 
has much merit.
  These families, known as Persian Gulf evacuees, have lived and worked 
in this country being evacuated out of Kuwait, at the behest of the 
United States government, just prior to U.S. Military Intervention in 
the Iraqi invasion of that country.
  Many of these individuals, by order of then President Bush, were 
evacuated to keep them out of harms way when the United States 
intervened militarily in Kuwait, and hid them in their homes against 
Iraqi retaliation. Once here, the majority of the 2,000 evacuees 
adjusted their own status, often through asylum procedures. These 54 
families remained in limbo, facing deportation and loss of work permits 
in the United States.
  The Persian Gulf evacuees, are well educated, English speaking, 
mostly professional individuals perfectly capable of working and 
supporting themselves here in the United States without becoming wards 
of any State in which they have settled.
  This action is good for this Congress and for America, and I support 
its passage.

                          ____________________