Alan K. Simpson Quotes
So let us take our fair share of the true refugees and act responsible as a government in providing for their necessary expenses. Let us stop skewing the whole process by taking some folks who are not truly refugees in order simply to meet our foreign policy needs or domestic policy demands. There has to be a better way to meet those needs and demands than we are doing now. I think it is embarrassing to all of us who truly know the mission of the Refugee Act.
Simpson, Alan K. Statement on the Refugee Act. Congressional Record, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1980.
The issue of admission of relatives of citizens had, in the 20th century, become controversial as some political forces worked to restrict immigration. The result of politicizing this issue was that the relatives who would receive immigration priorities would change every time Congress legislated about anything involving immigration and asylum. Immigrants from some countries could have their aunts and uncles get priority while other countries it was only siblings, children and parents. And still others would be children only. There was also racial and ethnic discrimination in that nations with white populations received a broader right to have relatives immigrate than non-white.
“Fora” is the plural of forum. It was then preferable to “forums” as the plural form, because “forum” was a Latin word and the Latin plural for nouns ending in “um” was “a” as in “flora and fauna”. This was adopted as U. S. Policy until the second decade of the 21st century when the combination of the War on Terror, and the huge world refugee crises triggered by the Syrian revolution produced much nativist and and-immigration feeling to go along with the small proportion of American anti-immigrants who have almost always been a part of the American pluralistic landscape.
Alan Kooi Simpson is an American politician and member of the Republican Party, who represented Wyoming in the United States Senate (1979–97). He also served as co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform with Democratic Party co-chair Erskine Bowles of North Carolina.
