FLOOR STATEMENT: Statement of Congressman Stark on the Reintroduction of the Restoring Protection to Victims of Persecution Act

Friday, 23 September 2011 11:03

For the Congressional Record
September, 2011

Statement of Congressman Stark on the Reintroduction of the Restoring Protection to Victims of Persecution Act

Mr. Speaker, I rise with my colleague, Mr. Moran of Virginia, to reintroduce the Restoring Protection to Victims of Persecution Act, a bill that would end the practice of barring asylum claims by those who have been in our country for more than a year.

In 1996, this one-year bar to asylum was enacted as a way to prevent fraudulent claimants from being granted asylum.  Sixteen years later, there is no evidence to show that deadlines of this nature are effective in preventing fraud.  Rather, the implementation of this law has resulted in the return of refugees to countries where they face persecution because of their gender, religion, nationality, or political involvement. 

Although the law includes exceptions to excuse those who are determined to have valid reasons for applying for asylum after one year, adjudicators routinely deny applicants who meet these exceptions. People who are attempting to care for their children, hide from their abusers, cope with past trauma, and deal with the challenges of surviving in a new country are repeatedly and arbitrarily denied asylum status because of missing the one-year deadline.

Once denied, an applicant has only two other possibilities for safety: to petition for withholding of removal or to seek protection under the Convention Against Torture. Both these forms of relief demand an applicant surmount a much higher standard of proof than asylum and do not allow reunification with family members or provide them permanency.

Everyone in Congress can agree that our immigration system is overwhelmed with a massive backlog of cases and in desperate need of reform.  The one-year deadline only adds to this amassment of immigration cases and leads to government waste.  More importantly, this law is hurting the very people we ought to be helping. This is a human rights issue that must be addressed as quickly as possible, and I implore my colleagues to support this desperately needed legislation. 

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