
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 31, 1995                   TAG: 9508310047
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: STUART ANDERSON
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SHUTTING DOORS OF POLITICAL ASYLUM

GIVEN pending legislation in Congress, the irony of China's release of Harry Wu (Aug. 25 article, ``China frees convicted activist'') and the U.S. government's championing of his cause is that, in the '80s, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service at first notified Wu that his application for asylum would be denied.

The asylum officer told him that anyone with a valid passport and permission from the Chinese government to travel couldn't be a political refugee. Yet a bill, sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, and ready to be acted upon by the House Judiciary Committee, would deny genuine administrative and judicial review to asylum seekers, and make it far more likely that those with a legitimate fear of persecution would be sent back into the hands of their persecutors.

Human-rights activist Wu was almost denied due to the validity of his documents, but the proposed legislation would also allow asylum officers with limited training to exclude summarily, often without access to legal counsel, those without valid documents. This ignores the fact that asylum seekers often need doctored identification papers to escape their homeland. Moreover, many arrive here expecting a short stay, only to discover months later that the political situation in their homeland has made it impossible for them to return. Yet the House bill would set the nearly impossible standard - that to be eligible for asylum, an individual must file a federal form stating his or her intention to apply for asylum within 30 days of arrival in the United States. and then must complete a formal application within 60 days.

If Wu, who spent 19 years in a Chinese labor camp, could be turned down the first time, does that not argue for maintaining an asylum system that uses highly trained, full-time asylum adjudicators who follow fair procedures, including access to an independent review?

If America is no longer to be a place of refuge for those fleeing political and religious persecution, then President Clinton and congressional leaders should announce this publicly, rather than allow provisions hidden within legislation to codify as law such an abdication of American principles of justice.

Stuart Anderson is policy director of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution in Arlington.

by CNB