African National Congress Exemption

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I am proud to support H.R. 5690, introduced by Chairman Howard Berman. I applaud Mr. Berman and Lamar Smith, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, for coming together as they have to end the absurdity that now exists with respect to South African government officials who want to visit the U.S.

Like other freedom-fighting groups that should be lauded--not penalized--members of the ANC have been effectively ensnared by the overbroad ``terrorism'' provisions in our immigration laws. These provisions have prevented the U.S. from admitting and offering protection to many innocent people, including some of the world's most vulnerable refugees.

Caught up in these definitions have been the Hmong and the Montagnards, brave men and women who fought alongside our troops in Vietnam; the Alzados who fought for freedom against Castro's regime in Cuba; and the Chin and the Karen who tried to free themselves from a repressive Burmese government.

UntiI recently, our immigration laws labeled all of their actions as ``terrorist activity,'' simply because they used weapons to fight for their freedom.

In the 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act, we finally began to address these issues, freeing many of these groups from this problem. With today's bill we now join the ANC to their ranks.

Like the Hmong and the Montagnards, the Alzados, the Chin and the Karen, many members of the ANC did nothing more than fight for freedom against a repressive government--in this case, a government that severely restricted the rights of its people through apartheid and used brutal and murderous tactics to stay in power.

We should commend their efforts to free themselves and their people, not to mention their spectacularly successful--and peaceful--transition to power.

I strongly support this bill.

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