on march 17th, 1980, president jimmy carter signed the refugee act after it was unanimously passed by the senate and had bipartisan support in the house. it established the office of refugee resettlement and created a process for addressing refugee emergencies. next on american history tv, former government officials and refugee rights advocates discuss the history of refugee policy prior to 1980 and the legacy of the refugee act since that time. this is an hour and 15 minutes. good morning. i am dr. meredith evans. i am the director of the carter

presidential library and museum. i'm so excited for you to be here today. we are commemorating the refugee act of 1980 signed by president carter in march that year. on behalf of president carter, who was unable to be here, i just want to welcome you first, welcome you to the carter presidential center. we say center because there's two fabulous entities here, the federal entity is the library museum which is where you are now and a few feet away is the carter center which is an ngo. together president carter looks at us as the center. we provide him with data, research, camaraderie, advice and we work really, really hard for him as well. the refugee act is an amendment to the earlier immigration and nationality act and the migration of the refugee assistant act. the goal was to provide

permanent and consistent admission to people who were suffering in other nations and to provide asylum. that was the whole point of it. this is what makes it so exciting to be here today too. we are partnering with mark hatfield, the ceo who has been doing this work for over 100 years, helping people come to america and work through resettlement and getting their lives more robust and back on track in many ways here in the united states. and this refugee act assists with that. in addition, we have a wonderful speaker this morning. because president carter was unable to come, i couldn't think of anybody better than the ceo of the carter center, ambassador marianne peters. not only is she a wonderful friend and mentor to me, she's had a phenomenal career. she's been an ambassador in

bangladesh. she's been in foreign affairs for over 30 years and now she gets to work for the carter center and really have a global reach and a much more robust way than just being a federal employee. with that said, we're going to bring ambassador peters to the stage and she's going to share a few words. so again, welcome. this is a really great time. i'm looking forward to fabulous discussions and almost enlightenment. [ applause ] >> thank you, meredith, and let me add my welcome to meredith. i'm delighted to be here at this celebration of the refugee act of 1980 sponsored jointly by the carter library and the hebrew immigrant aid society now known as hias. as meredith told you, president carter is recovering from hip

surgery and is unable to be here this morning to celebrate with us. i am standing in for president carter, who supported and signed this landmark law. and about the only possible benefit i could think of for having me speak this morning is that i will give more credit to president carter's role on the refugee issue than he would have done himself. it's fair to say that human beings have sought and been granted refuge since prehistoric times. but not until the last century was a right to refuge recognized. as for the u.s., it wasn't until the passage of the refugee act of 1980, the milestone we're here to celebrate, that a comprehensive system was put in place to carry out the obligations growing from the right of refuge. i learned from our historian, dr. steve hockman. there he is.

that the english word refugee was first used in the 17th century to describe protestants who fled religious persecution in france and it was adapted from the french word. by the end of the century refugee was being used in a generic sense for anyone who sought refuge from war, political troubles or natural disasters. from the 17th to the 20th centuries, many settlers in the territories that would become the united states would have been considered refugees today. however, there was no legal distinction at the time between them and those who came seeking a better life. and as the immigration of catholics from ireland and southern germany increased during the 1830s and 1840s, a nativist anti-immigration movement arose. despite that, european immigration continued throughout the 19th century, but

anti-immigrant forces did succeed in passing the chinese exclusion act in 1882. this was not our finest hour. i'm sad to say that people of chinese decent descent remained ineligible from citizenship until 1943. in the years following the civil war, the yieds was growing economically and needed an expanded labor force. the immigrants were not legally classified as refugees yet, but again many would have qualified as such by today's definition. jewish immigrants especially faced discrimination and violence in eastern europe and the russian empire. and the hebrew immigrant aid society founded in 1881 provided support for those seeking refuge in our country. skipping ahead to world war i, the turmoil that followed that

ar ar ma geden were russians fleeing the communist revolution, armenians fleeing turkish controlled lands, greeks uprooted from territories and many others as well. the new league of nations attempted to address the issue. and in 1921 the league named the high commissioner for refugees. nanten was actually a remarkable humanitarian who was awarded the nobel peace prize. just a piece of refugee trivia for you, his most famous innovation came to be called the nansen passport, which was a travel document for stateless persons. as you know, the united states did not join the league of nations and turned away during the same period from its

tradition as a refuge. the emergency quota act of 1921 and the immigration act of 1924 placed tight limits on the numbers of immigrants who could interfr enter from the very regions that produced the majority of refugees. again skipping ahead, in december 1945 after the end of world war ii, president truman expedited the admission to the united states of displaced persons and refugees under the framework of the then existing laws. but it was not until the refugee act of 1953 that refugees, notably those from communist countries were admitted above the preexisting quota numbers. by the way, speaking of world war ii, i'm sure you all know that today, in the world today, the number of refugees and displaced persons totals nearly 70 million. and that number is actually larger than the number of people

displaced by the incredible upheaval of world war ii. spurred by the refugee crisis that was recognized after world war ii, in 1951 a conference in geneva adopted the convention relating to the status of refugees. that convention was limited to protecting european refugees of world war ii, but it did have broader ramifications for international law because it defined the word refugee and the kind of legal protection, assistance and rights that a refugee was entitled to receive. then in 1967, the u.n. add adopted the unhcr refugee protocol which removed those geographical limits of the 1951 convention and allowed the definitions of the convention to be used universally.

meanwhile, back in the u.s., this time good news from the u.s. front, president lyndon johnson pushed through sweeping amendments to the immigration and nationality act that abolished the quota system and the prohibition on non-white asian immigrants and provided a permanent basis for the admission of refugees into the united states. now we come to the next significant action of the u.s. government regarding refugees, which was of course the passage of the refugee act of 1980. why did president carter choose to work with his administration and congress to pass this legislation? now, this is actually a story that has not been told or has not been told fully. president carter has never written about it although he's written how many books, 32. and others who have published books about the administration either omitted or barely mention

it. and i'm so excited, because this event today will explore the story of the refugee act and i hope fill in the gaps in the historical record. one explanation for why the legislation was overlooked is that it may have been overshadowed by the other events of the year. while it should have received significant attention, it was passed during the iran hostage crisis and the soviet invasion of afghanistan. those of you who remember that time will remember that especially the former, the hostage crisis, almost completely monopolized and dominated the news. president carter was dealing with these international challenges and a difficult economic situation at home. yet he embraced the need to show

compassion to those facing persecution in their homelands while protecting the borders of the united states. as you know, in his inaugural address president carter proclaimed that the nation's commitment to human rights must be absolute. acting on that commitment, in may of 1977, so obviously early in the administration, the national security council requested a review of u.s. foreign policy regarding human rights. i, by the way, was a foreign service officer, a u.s. diplomat, and i remember the sea change that took place in u.s. foreign policy during this period. a study was written in response to the national security council mandate and among the topics it addressed was, quote, improved access to the u.s. for refugees and dissidents. so the administration's policy regarding refugees should be understood as fitting firmly

into president carter's unwa unwavering commitment to human rights. the plight was an issue that touched him personally. in his white house diary, again this is thanks to dr. hockman that i know this, there are frequent comments and reflections on the refugees of the time. he worries about refugees in sudan from eretria and ethiopia and about jews from russia and refugees from lebanon. but his greatest concern was about indo-chinese refugees especially those from vietnam. he voiced the need for congress to expand the number allowed into the united states. in the aftermath of the vietnam war, the need for a change to american policy toward refugees became apparent as hundreds of thousands of vietnamese and c

cambodians fled the chaos and danger in their homelands. between 1975-1979, some 300,000 of these refugees were able to come to the united states thanks to presidential action because the law at the time restricts refugee admissions. many members of congress wanted to establish a more regular system of immigration and resettlement that would create a clear and flexible policy. at the same time, the dire conditions of the indo-chinese refugees were given international media attention when mrs. carter visited cambodian and vietnamese resettlement refugee camps in thailand in november of 1979. now, as you all know, the refugee act of 1980 was passed unanimously by the senate in late 1979 and signed by

president carter in march of 1980. let's reflect on that for a minute. every single senator voted for this act that sprang from a sense of compassion and responsibility. the bill raised the annual ceiling for refugees from 17,400 to 50,000, nearly tripling the number of refugees allowed to enter the u.s. each year. and this of course reflected primarily the immediate need to address the conditions of the indo-chinese refugees. but perhaps what was most significant for the long run was that the act adopted the u.n. definition of refugee as a person with a well-founded fear of persecution, a standard established by u.n. conventions and protocols. the law also founded a new office of the u.s. coordinator of refugee affairs and the

office of refugee resettlement and built on already existing public/private partnerships that helped and still help today refugees settle and adjust to life in their new country. this is the story we're here to celebrate, but there is unfortunately a kind of political tale to this story. unfortunately for public appreciation of the new law, in early april of 1980, so just a few weeks after the law was signed, thousands of cubans seeking asylum flooded the grounds of the peruvian embassy in havana cuba. subsequently castro, fidel castro decided to let them all go, opening the port of mariel to anyone who wanted to pick them up. during the boat lift, an estimated 125,000 cubans were

brought to the united states, overwhelming the processes set in place by the new law that were to have been implemented. now, the vast majority of these people were ordinary cubans, but it was determined later that more than 2700 of them were, in fact, serious or violent criminals. and when the presence of violent criminals among the cuban migrants became known, popular sentiment turned against refugees in general. to cut to the chase, the u.s. ultimately dealt with the cuban challenge. the vast majority of they and their children and their children's children are good and productive citizens of the united states. and the refugee act that was passed and signed nearly 40 years ago continues to provide proper protection to potential refugees and allows the united states to protect its borders. so i thank all of you for

gathering here at the jimmy carter museum to illuminate the history, implementation and the impact of this wise and compassionate piece of legislation. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> thank you, ambassador peters. before we bring up mark, i want you all to look around the sides of this room. what you will see are photographs taken in 1979 when president and mrs. carter visited the refugee camp in cambodia. so take a moment and just see the work that's been done by the carters and know that as a federal entity this is what we do, we maintain the history and a vibrant archive to show the progress that the united states makes over time. so with that said, mark, please come to the podium.

>> thank you, dr. evans. the theme of today is welcome. and i want to welcome you to this event at the jimmy carter presidential library and museum, just as we, the people of the united states, welcomed and resettled more refugees under president carter's leadership than under any president in american history. it's not that the american people were more receptive to refugees in those days. the history of this country is the history of a struggle between those who want to welcome immigrants and refugees and those who fear newcomers as a threat to our security and to our culture. that struggle long predates america. there is a reason that the torah, the old testament, the first five books of the old testament commands us 36 times to welcome and love the stranger

as ourselves. this is repeated more often than any other commandment not because it's the most important, but because it is the easiest to forget or ignore. president carter did not forget or ignore this commandment. he made it law. he was confronted with no less than four major refugee cry cea crises in his four years in office. throughout each one of these, he kept human rights as his north star. today we have gathered here many of the key people who laid the foundation for the refugee act, who helped write the refugee act and who implemented the refugee act. we're very sorry that president carter cannot be here with us today as he recovers from surgery, but we certainly do feel his presence and we are grateful for all he did to make today's celebration possible.

now, a word about how this event came about. after seeing jimmy carter teach sunday school in plains in october of this year, my son moses and i came to the museum. and i was very excited because i knew about all of the accomplishments of the carter administration that ambassador peters just described. i was looking forward to seeing all of the exhibits about all that president carter did for refugees and asylum seekers. all there was in this museum was a single photograph of roslyn carter visiting the refugee camp. i wasn't happy. i wrote to dr. evans, whom i had never met, and i complained about this omission. and she wrote back that while changing exhibits is an excruciatingly long process, we can do an event together to celebrate the refugee act of 1980. we chose today in hope that

president carter was going to be available. but also because we're in the lead-up to june 20th, which was world refugee day. a day when the u.n. high commissioner for refugees releases its statistics for the year. here we are today at this event. and i really want to thank my colleagues, jasmine sanders and elizabeth ruse whose hard work made this possible working hard with christopher geissler here at the library. it is congress that wrote and passed the act and it was two individuals in congress, two heros who really made that happen. one was the late senator ted kennedy of massachusetts, and one was congresswoman liz holtsman who represented the 18th district from 1973-1981 and who at that time was the youngest woman elected to

congress. she fought hard ant even fid eva legal challenge to end the bombings in cambodia under the nixon administration. she recommended three articles of impeachment against nixon. she authored the independent counsel legislation and was a champion of the equal rights amendment and for bringing nazi war criminals to justice. that's just the tip of the iceberg for congresswoman holtsman. she's here today because she is the mother of the refugee act of 1980. congresswoman holtsman. [ applause ] >> thank you very much, mark, for that kind introduction and thanks to all of you for being

here and to the carter center, the carter library. it's a very special honor for me to join with you today in celebrating the refugee act of 1980. as chair of the house immigration subcommittee, i was privileged to have an opportunity to assist in its enactment. obviously there are many people who deserve credit, first of course president jimmy carter for supporting the act and signing it into law and also for his administration's extraordinary work in resolving the indo-chinese refugee problem. president carter, i'm very sorry you couldn't be here today so that you could be thanked in person. i know everyone here wishes you a speedy recovery. former first lady roslyn carter played an important role too, traveling to southeast asia, visiting the refugee camps and publicizing the plight of the refugees. by the way, the congresswomen had a special mission at the

very time that mrs. carter was in thailand and we met with her. she was visiting refugee camps and we were as well. and when we came back to the u.s., we also met at the white house to consider how we would pursue the issue of helping refugees. so this was a commitment that mrs. carter felt very deeply and we were very honored to meet with her about that. and of course there's senator ted kennedy. the bill was his idea and his commitment, perseverance and legislative skills for indispensable. ted kennedy understood the moral dimensions of accepting refugees and the enhanced stature that doing so gave to the u.s. i also want to acknowledge his staff, jerry tinker and my staff jim shwhitzer.

i also want to applaud hias. we should all do that for organizing the conference and for persisting in its vital work of refugee resettlement since the 1980s and resettle my families as well. these are dark days for america. because these are dark days for immigrants to this country, those seeking refugee status or asylum, those who are undocumented aliens, or even those helping them. let's not forget that the fits pittsburgh assassin killed 11 jews at the tree of life synagogue to retaliate against hias's life saving refugee work. our country has been in this circle of hell before. think of the very antiimmigrant know nothing party in the 1840s. the chinese exclusion act of 1882, the 1924 racist quota law aimed the immigrants in europe

and the refusal to provide sanctuary to people fleeing hitler and the failure to open its doors wide at that time. today's antiimmigrant and anti-foreign afury shows progress is not inevitable. over the past two and a half years, we have hurdled backwards as a nation repeating some of the cruellest, most bigoted moments in our history. this has no shame. it is bold and brazen. our president calls mexicans rapists, prefers immigrants from norway and tries to shut down immigration from muslim majority countries. the bigotry culminated horrifically at the highest levels of our government of separating thousands of children from their parents at the southwest border without

developing any means to reunite them. taking children from parents who haven't harmed the children is kidnapping plain and simple. fortunately public outrage forced the program to end, but thousands of children still have not been reconnected with their families. where was the resistance within our own government to the orders for kidnapping who has been punished for it, why are children still separated. i resigned from the homeland security advisory council over that horrific policy. but that's not all. children on that border have been held by our government in cages. three children have died in u.s. custody. now recreational opportunities in english language training are being taken from unaccompanied minors in government detention. every day we learn of new forms of malicious policies visited by our own government on refugees and immigrants. and americans are victims too

directly in a larger way we suffer from being -- we suffer from this policy. but just an example a woman was recently arrested for giving some water to three thirsty mexican boys on the roadside. the u.s. government's heartless conduct today is exactly what our government condemned in the countries of southeast asia during the exodus. i feel so passionately about this because my mother and her parents came to america as refugees. in 1920, they fled the ukraine and the communist takeover. my grandmother's small business was seized. my mother who was 12 years old was thrown out of school because she was born into a borge wah

family. they were hoping to find a path to a decent life. but if my mom and my family arrived here just a few years later, the doors of this country might have been shut to them because of the racist quotas. i'm forever grateful they had this opportunity, but too much of this country is not grateful for foreigners who came here, although all americans except native americans came here willingly or in chains or are descendants of those who did. too many americans see refugees and immigrants as a threat, not a resource. they see the differences, not our common humanity. they are blind to the striving, the idealism of many refugees and immigrants who see the promise of america. the refugees don't see an america that needs to be made great again. this is why we need to revisit and celebrate the refugee act. it shows a very different america.

the indo-china refugee crisis, prompted the 1980 act was in full swing when i became chair of the immigration subcommittee in 1979. to understand the problem firsthand, i traveled many times to southeast asia, slogging through dozens of refugee camps talking to refugees and government officials in every affected country. my heart went out to the boat people, the ethnic vietnamese among them were generally escaping political persecution because they work for the u.s. during the war. but the vietnamese government engaged in ethnic cleansing expelling ethnic chinese who had lived for centuries in vietnam. most fled in small, un-seaworthy boats, risking capsizing and attacks by pirates. even if the refugees reached a neighboring country, they could be pushed back out to sea by the governments that didn't want to accept them.

in stark contrast to today the u.s. government led the world in solving the problem. first, it urged countries bordering on vietnam not to push the refugees back out to sea. think about that. telling them to be patient and that the u.s. would work to get other countries to resettle the refugees. next an international conference was held in geneva because the u.s. agreed to accept a large number of refugees and set an example, set an example other countries followed suit. almost all the refugees were resettled in one of the most successful efforts of its kind in history. maybe the most successful and president carter deserves huge credit for that. all of us can be proud of our country's role. the boat people crisis also prompted the passage of the

refugee act of 1980. the act, as you have heard, created a permanent framework for the admission of refugees into the u.s., including a medicare noicchanism for annual. before that admission was largely on an ad hoc basis. as a nation, we were now fully committed and committed in law to accepting refugees. the act also broadened the definition of refugees so anyone fleeing persecution on account of race, religion, national origin or political opinion could qualify in the past it was limited to people fleeing communist countries or the middle east. what was limited was the definition of refugee. importantly, the act provided funds and offices to administer them to make resettlement here easier and faster. and finally the act created a process for seeking asylum. surprisingly, the act was not controversial.

the senate passed it unanimously. there was some opposition in the house, which wanted more congressional control over admissions. the act has held up well. initially it set a limit of 50,000 refugees annually, although the president could lift the limit in certain circumstances. in his last year, president obama called the admission of 100,000 refugees. there was no outcry. before coming here, refugees under go very strict scrutiny. the act and the circumstances surrounding it as well as its implementation until the past two and a half years shine a very harsh light on present day practices and attitudes. in 1980, the u.s. welcomed refugees. today our government shuns them and has cut the numbers to be admitted drastically to the

lowest ever under the act. one-third of the average number. in 1980 our government understood that its history in vietnam created a special responsibility to help those who work for us and other vietnamese refugees. today our government acknowledges no responsibility for the consequences of its malign behavior in the northern triangle countries of guatemala, honduras and and el salvador. these acts included ousting the democrat lically elected president of guatemala and propping up authoritarian governments that refuse to address poverty and widespread corruption. not to mention domestic and gang violence and the terrible drought in guatemala. if our government wants to tackle the northern triangle exodus, it needs to strengthen governmental institutions in those countries. this means restoring serious

cuts in aid, enlisting the know how of countries in the region such as guatemala and the know how of the u.n. to create effective systems of justice as well as economic development programs targeted at the poor. the burden of absorbing the refugees could be shared with other countries. hello. we did that in 1980. but the sneering, bullying treatment of countries in central and south america as well as canada would have to stop. these approaches would be cheaper ask more effective than building a useless wall imposing tariffs and cruelly mistreating the refugees, but they are unlikely to be implemented. in 1980, the u.s. knew that it was wrong to expel refugees by sending them back into danger. today we are trying to do just that and to coerce mexico into joining with us.

today our country is frightened of admitting refugees. then we admitted at least 750,000 chinese refugees in addition to 600,000 cuban refugees and hundreds of thousands of jewish refugees in the soviet union. 750,000 indo-chinese refugees. there was barely an outcry. what has caused the difference in the response. think of president carter and think of president trump and his whipping up public hostility with false and bigoted claims. learning the lessons of the 1980 refugee act would allow us to tackle today's refugee problems more humanely and more successfully. we have done it once and we can do it again.

thank you. [ applause ] >> it is now my great pleasure to introduce ms. mojito. she shared with a group of "new york times" reporters for a 2002 series on race in america. and more recently, she shared an emmy for the coverage of pope francis's visit to the americas. but she's here today because before becoming a successful journalist, she herself during the carter administration was a refugee who fled cuba by boat with her family at the age of 16

with her sister who is also here today with us. she wrote about the experience and about the boat lift in finding manana, a memoir of cuban exodus. and this is her second visit speaking here at the presidential library of jimmy carter. [ applause ] >> good morning. i used to teach, so i always do that. first of all, thank you to mark for remembering me. we had never met, but he read my work. and to jasmine for organizing this and making it possible for my sister to be here.

she's a teacher so she's able to be here because of her vacation. and to hias for inviting me into the carter library and museum. this is my second time here. i conducted part of my research for my book here in the library. so thank you for allowing me to do that. and thank you to ambassador peters for being the first person that i have ever heard getting the numbers right when it comes to the mariel boat lift and the number of our criminals who came in the boat lift. you helped her with that, thank you. often people say that castro opened the jails and insane asylums and leave it at that. and while that is technically true, one would have to go a little deeper and find out who were kept in the jails and insane asylums.

and people who have experience with repressive regimes know that not everyone who was behind bars or inside insane asylums deserved to be there. so out of the people that came in the span of five months, as ambassador peters correctly said, about 2,700 were proved to be concluded to be hardened criminals. that's a very tiny amount, especially compared to the bad reputation we all received after the boat lift. but anyway, i wanted to talk a little bit about why i became a refugee and a little bit. not too much because i know reading if books it's not very cool, but just a bit because they asked me to do that. about my experience and why i became a refugee. i grew up knowing, my sister and i both, just the two of us, we grew up knowing one day we would leave cuba. that the lives we were supposed

to live had been robbed from us. my comments may seem strange now, or at the very least outdated, at a time when probably each person here probably knows of a person who has traveled to cuba recently as a tourist or wants to. but now it may be hard to imagine what the '70s were like. the late '60s and '70s in cuba and even the '80s. so i want to read a little bit from my book to remind you of that time. from 1966 until we left in may 1980, the main topic of conversation at home and with friends who shared my parent's obsession was if and when and how we would leave cuba. with the united states closed off to immigrants from cuba after the freedom flights have stopped in 1973 our chances were slim. we knew that some desperate people took to the treacherous waters of the gulf of mexico braving dangerous currents to

make it to miami. once in awhile, we would hear stories of those who made it. but we never heard of the ones. the ocean was not an option for us. my mother was pessimistic. my father, cautious. neither knew how to swim. we couldn't request a visa because we had no relatives in the country. no one in the family had even bothered to trace our roots to a spanish ancestor. at last something extraordinary happened. a deeply religious man with a commitment to upholding human rights assumed the presidency of the united states in 1977. i get emotional at this part, i'm sorry. rights assumed the precedent sit of the united states in 19 77, i get emotional at this part, i'm sorry. if it weren't for him, we wouldn't be here.

he wanted to revamp the foreign policy. there was no need to have enemies. there was no place in the world to envision. almost immediately, an ally, the u.s. president who finally acknowledge that castro was the rightful president of cuba and would give him the recognition he craved. members of congress started traveling to cuba. officials from both countries began this issues of maritime boundaries and fishing rights. an american journalist questioned castro on cuban television about the prisoners he kept throughout the island. and young cuban americans returned to the homeland to pledge their support and youthful enthusiasm through the revolutionary parents had

refused them. in late 1978 with the blessing of the carter administration, cuban americans began a dialogue with the cuban government that led to the release of hundreds of political prisoners and the visits of thousands of exiles who in 1979 returned to the the island loaded with gifts. the visits were a jolt to the country and its people. for almost a decade, cuba lived in complete isolation from the western world. no one could get in, no one could get out. god and the beatles were forbidden. men with long hair were arrested. homosexuals and artists were sent to labor camps. anyone who expressed a design to immigrate was ast sized, harassed and denied jobs and higher education. those who openly disagreed with the government were jailed or executed. neighbors spied on neighbors and everyone was expected to give up all allegiances for the good of the revolution, including obligations to the family and

loyalty to france. in angst and distrust, the government surprised us all by welcoming back exiles. people were stunned and confused and began to look for a way to escape. embassy break-ins became everyday occurrences. by christmas of 1979, there were more than 100 cubans sheltering in latin american embassies in havana. so many people seemed eager to abandon his socialist paradise, castro retaliated by using the only weapon he had. in a repeat of the 1965 boat lift, he threatened to flood south florida with refugees. in april 1980 he invited cuban exiles to return to the island to pick up relatives at the port of mariel west of havana. president carter, preoccupied with international crisis and faltering reelection campaign, initially ignored the threat.

but miami-cubans desperate to be reunited with relatives once again raced to havana's shore. my father's older brother was one of them. on may 7, 1980, the day the police knocked on our door, our names must have finally made it to the top of the immigration list. that day within a matter of minutes, we left our home, our neighborhood, our lives, we left the way one leaves a cherished but impossible love. our hearts heavy with regret, but beating with great hope. what we lived through in cuba is the reason why organizations such as hias exist. the reason why the refugee act was passed. the very definition of refugee adopted by the act to this day makes me emotional. slightly edited, it reads, any person who is outside -- who is outside of his or her country of

residence or nationality and is unable or unwilling to return to it because of persecution or a well afounded fear of purse cushion on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion. as i hope the section that i read from my book makes clear, my family was definitely part of the latter group because of our political opinions. the refugee act became effective the very day that a desperate bus driver plowed a bus against the embassy in havana and saw political asylum unleashing events that led directly to the boat lift and ultimately to the arrival of more than 125,000 cubans in this span of five months. all of them, myself include, benefitted from the refugee act. two days after my arrival, my parents and i started taking

english lessons in the evening for free. we didn't need more government help because we had family and because my parents found jobs right away, but we knew we needed it if there was there. my father was a truck driver and my mother was a seamstress and went to work at a factory two days after arrival. there are people in this room or watching this meeting from home as i hope president carter is is. the they are directly responsible for us being here today, especially the congresswoman, my thank you to you. to all of you, i say thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart. everything we are, my family, my three wonderful u.s.-born sons, and my two nephews, our careers and our family, they are in addition to myself, a teacher, an actor, a pilot, a journalist,

our home is in beautiful miami. my terrific years in "the new york times," my life in new york, my travels around the world, the fact i'm a practicing journalist who has never been silenced and that my sister teaches so many kids in sixth grade, everything we owe to this country. and therefore, to those of you who opened the doors and as president carter said so many years ago, welcomed us with open hearts and open arms. thank you. [ applause ] >> now we're joined by a representative of the united nations high commissioner for refugees in geneva.

actually the second in command there, kelly clemmons, who had a long career at the state department. last position there was deputy assistant secretary of state for population refugees and migration around the world, especially in the refugee world, she's known as the dhc, but to me she's known as kelly. i have known kelly for 20 years since she was in congressional relations at the state department refugee bureau and we took congressional staff to meet with refugees in west africa and the middle east together. kelly? [ applause ] >> thank you very much, mark. you are a hard act to follow, but i'll do my best. dr. evans, ambassador peters, mark, representative holtsman

and distinguished guests and friends, i'm really truly honored. it's a great honor to be to celebrate the refugee act of of 1980. i want to bring greetings of the high commissioner and colleagues around the world, who complement the ongoing commitment to refugee protection and for recognizing the need to rededicate ourselves to the service of the world's most vulnerable populations. speaking very personally, many of you here in the room have served as mentors to me and friends to me over three decades. and i entered the state department ten years after the refugee act was adopted, but when i started at the state department, its implementation was in full throttle. global force displacement currently stands, as was mentioned earlier, at the

highest level in recent history. more than, and i can say that in the next couple day, you'll hear it officially. more than 70 million women, men and children forcibly uprooted from their homes by violence and persecution. and persecution from their homes. some 25 million who have crossed an international border and over 40 million remaining within their own countries known as internally displaced persons. while refugees and stateless, and glad to hear that is mentioned this morning as well are our core constituency, we join with partners to protect and assist the internally displaced. a mission that is often involving working in war zones under extremely dangerous conditions. as deputy high commissioner for unhr, i am enormously proud of the people i work with day in, day out, and over 90% are working in the field and often

in remote and challenging locations. both the establishment of the uhncr in 1950 and the adoption of the refugee convention in the following year were in response to events of world war ii as we have discussed this morning, and the collective decision to learn from the toughest of lessons. uhncr's initial job was to help the millions of europeans uprooted from their homes during the war. in the decade since, our role has expanded. we are now leading the expanse of refugee situations around the globe, and we have operations in 138 countries. we provide many forms of life saving assistance both directly and through important partners like hias who i was pleased to see in ecuador last week in action and we worked for long term achievements for displacement, but our mandate of the core is to protect refugees.

this role is enshrined in the role itself and prohibiting governments to returning refugees to countries where they fear persecution, and central to the prohibition is the question who is a refugee. as mentioned by ambassador peters and representative holtzman the '51 convention defines a refugee as someone who is outside of his or her own country due to a well founded fear of persecution on the grounds also mentioned by muerta. they relate to the five aspects of the person's identity, and things that cannot or should not have to change. in world war ii millions of yous were targ -- of jews were targeted. and we continue to see egregious human rights violations carried out because of the people and who they are. we see it in the targeting of the ethic rohingya in myanmar

and the murder of teenaged boys resisting gang recruitment in central america and the disappearance of the pro democracy activists at many places around the globe. we see it in the brutal attacks of the south sudanese who are believed to be supporters of a political division, and also with isis and the christians and yazidis and the sunnis who do not share the group's extreme ideology. though the faces of the victims have changed many times since world war ii, the human ability to demonize and oppress others and to deny the very humanity sadly remains. as you heard from others this morning, the u.s. formally associated itself with the definitions and obligations in the '51 convention when it

became a party to the '67 protocol. even before aseeding to the protocol, they had enacted protocol, and yet the public sentiment was not always on the side of the refugees and the ad hoc law that allowed the admission of refugees were hotly debated in the 1970s, this is still very much the case. this conversation has never been easy. what made the difference then as is now was one thing leader. in 1975, such leadership came in the form of representative holtzman and a small group of congressional champions. together they pushed back against fear and misinformation, and against the notion that vietnamese refugees would never assimilate or that they posed a threat to u.s. values. the threat is a result that we

now know is a law to assist these refugees. four years later when president carter who i hope very much is listening today took the bold step of doubling the monthly resettlement number for southeast asian refugee, and that act of u.s. leadership helped to convince other countries to take similar action. soon after, president holtzman resumed the act that we will see today. that helped the systemic integration of the refugees and avoid persecution. as an american, i believe i am within my rights to say that the world could use such leadership today. in the 1981 state of the union address president carter noted that we cannot hope to build a just and humane society at home

if we ignore the humanitarian claims of the refugees and the lives at stake that have nowhere else to turn. our country can be proud that hundreds of thousands of people around the world would risk everything they have including their own lives to come to a new world. and so for people to avoid persecution and seek safety on our shores is sadly lacking in parts of the world today and yet that sentiment is needed now more than ever. today, this displacement is referred to as a worldwide refugee crisis. and it is a crisis, but not the way that it is portrayed in the media. the persecution, the war, the oppression and the drivers of displacement are collectively a crisis. the failure of the international community to prevent or resolve conflict, and that is a crisis. the inability of the victims of

conflict to find safety is again a crisis. yet too often the displaced themselves are seen as the problem. as if their movement across borders is all that needs to stop. as a result governments often result by shutting doors and denying the victims of persecution the safe haven they so desperately need. we see it on every continent in the world today. we saw nw it in 2015 when migra passed the mediterranean in search of aid in europe. 85% of those arriving were from the world's top ten refugee-producing countries, including syria and afghanistan. the initial response by some governments was chaotic with various borders being blocked and tens of thousands of people left stranded, and eventually a more coordinated approach took hold, and we continue to see the uneven response to asylum

seekers and instead of the humane policies with repartition, and we sometimes see denial of access which can push access seekers further into the hands of snugglers and traffickers and we have seen it in asia as well. in mid-2015, thousands of rohingya refugees took from myanmar to boats and either from myanmar or from neighboring bangladesh, and took access through southeast asia. the areas responded with policies and many of them initially denying access. after the images of the desperate rohingya stranded at see on rickety boats, they were allowed to come to shore. and then 700,000 rohingya fled

into myanmar, and they joined other refugees who had been there for years or decades. the response of the people of bangladesh has been generous, but the pressures is of them to return to myanmar are mounting. will another boat crisis hopefully not occur? well, it is of course possible and despite a long and proud tradition of being in africa to hosting the refugees, we have seen the people denied protection on that continent as well. in 1996, thousands of liberian refugees spent days at sea rejected at one west african port after another until ghana and sierra leone relented and let them disembark. today, the sub saharan africa is home to more than a quarter of the world's refugees with many countries hosting each other's

citizens as conflicts become interrelated. and yet the forced return of the asylum seekers still occurs on the regular basis, and this is not a solution. here in the u.s., a vigorous debate regarding how to respond appropriately to increase in the number of asylum seekers from central america. we welcome this discussion as an opportunity to draw attention to brutal violence in central america, and which is causing central americans to flee and to seek solutions to these dilemmas. as part of the solution, we are working to help the mexican government enhance the asylum system so that individuals and families fleeing honduras, guatemala and el salvador can find protection closer to home without resorting to the dangerous onward journey. at the same time we call on all countries in the region to provide access to asylum systems and as done elsewhere in the

world, uuhnch remains ready to respond to a challenging humanity situation on the borders. and we are ready to respond to venezuela which is constituting the largest exodus in the recent history of latin america. everyday, 3,000 to 5,000 venezuelans leave due to violence, insecurity and lack of essential services. 4 million refugees now live abroad in mainly countries in south america. we believe that the majority of those fleeing venezuela now are of indeed in need of international refugee protection. before arriving here in atlanta yesterday, i spent time in ecuador and in colombia and we met with venezuelans who had left the country in recent weeks and month, and the situation to be blunt is quite desperate

despite the generosity of the host communities and the people of those regions. while thoseleys venezuela are in search of food, access to health care and support, and time and again, we were able to hear the full story, and the refugee dimension became very clear. scratch below the surface of poverty and desperation, and you will hear the stories of persecution, intimidation, targeted violence, often at the hands of paramilitary street gangs called collectivos. this is not just a time of humanitarian crisis, but also political issue. a man said that he was swarmed by 30 motorbikes, and then approached by men in white masks after her husband switched

political sides. the government took away their home, and denied them access to public food, and after they stabbed her husband she fled with her three kids. and while she had been in the area for more than a week, her husband is in peru recovering, and their family is in chile and in colombia and she was trying to reunite with them. three days later at the border, we visited a youth shelter specializing in support of victims of sexual exploitation and abuse, and already a major problem within the colombian community in one of the most impoverished states, and the centers' director described the young venezuelans being trafficked and unaccompanied is that of an atomic bomb, and the effects are that serious.

this exodus is approaching the scale of other mega crises such as syria and indo-china, and the emergencies that can define an entire region for generations. though it is uniquely complex in the political and social factors the situation of those facing the country increasingly reminds us of the reality of the refugees around the world. despite the media focusing on the refugees crossing oceans and deserts to reach the western nations, the majority of the refugees will cross just one border and they remain very close to home. while in ecuador, we found many more moving south, they were doing so out of desperation and seeking safety and support that was elusive further north, and after seeing the people sleeping on the streets in northern colombia, i can see why. this is again a recurring theme. and trend as a result of the

past several years that the u.n., and the governments and the private sector and including the developmental agencies and the world bank have begun to pursue a new approach the refugee response. the approach contains four key components. first, increasing the support to the refugee hosting the refugees such as jordan, and cuba and bangladesh and mexico and in ways to allow them not only to help the refugees, but to improve the well-being of their own citizens. second, we are giving the refugees more opportunities to go to school and earn a living, inclusion. third, we are asking the international community to provide more opportunities for resettlement, and other legal migration pathways such as the work visas, and the work scho r scholarsh scholarships, and we are redoubling the efforts to bring about the conditions that enable the refugees to return voluntarily to their home country, and the refugees

fleeing violence and persecution clearly need safety, but they need to be included in the society's hosting them, and have a chance to create a bert ftter future, and with the skills they have acquired, they can help, and this is the refugee response network to achieve a more equitable, and responsible sharing of the donors, the refugee hosts and reselt elemtt countries the and others. and we need a better response of refugee movements in the prolonged settlements. since the '51 has been adopted it is clear that the sustained solutions to refugee crisis cannot be achieved without significant international cooperation or without leadership. here in the united states, issues of refugee protection and aid have for decades been debate

and the response has sometimes shifted as we have heard this morning. as has happened elsewhere in the globe, courageous leadership will allow humanity to win out as it did in 1980 and sometimes however, fear takes hold as it did when st. louis was denied to land and hundreds of jews were returned to europe. and now with the record global force replacement, the suds the biggest financial donor no uhncr and other organizations. and the united states is the biggest donor of the asylum which it would not be without the act of 1980. and so without the john rosgenef the american people and government, and as exemplified by president carter as so many

in this room will endure, and as he told us whether the borders that deny us or the picket fences are national boundaries, we are all neighbors in a global community. thank you very much. [ applause ] good morning, everyone. i'm jazmine sanders the special project operator and with our new board chair we were able to have robert mondale send us a short message. please sit back and watch.

>> mr. attorney general, some have so grasped issues that it is below the metaphors and to the dialect of the human heart. today we have such a tragedy and for those desperate new expressions have been borne, a barbed wire bondage and a flood tide of human misery, and with this new coinage, our language is a rich and our civilization is impoverished.

and for the decency and self-respect of the civilized world. if each nation would agree for every jew at once, every jew could have been saved. it is heartbreaking to think of the desperate human beings waiting in suspense for what happens. but the question is not just humanitarian, but it is also a test of civilization. this had begun with high hopes and preparing to welcome in another 168,000 refugees in the coming year. the governors and the members of

congress in our delegation as well as outstanding civic duties for all of america are a symbol of the enduring commitment of president carter and the american people. but the growing exodus from indo-china still outstrips international progress. we must work together. less we all know the risk of conflict that arrives in the instability of southeast asia. unless this conference gives berth to new commitments, and not just simply new metaphors, we will hear the scorn of aveon. it is a time of action. and also, our children will depend on us if we fail. we will have the same comfort

and duty that we have over the deliberations today. as one observer of the proceedings said that these four people and these great principles came so far away. one was in another count in geneva and another one on the eve of this one is that the atmosphere is so much like the others. let us not by like the others and let us renounce that legacy of shame. let us reach beyond the metaphor. let us honor the moral principles that we inherit. let us do something meaningful, something from profound to end this misery. we face a world problem, and let us have a world solution. dear friends gathered at the jimmy carter presidential

library, first and most importantly, i wish jimmy carter and his friend and former vice president a speedy recovery. thank you for celebrating the refugee act of 1980. a great humanitarian achievement for our country and administration through congress. it is the pulse of the american heart to provide a heart for those fleeing tyranny and seeking a better life. in my beloved native minnesota, we are enriched by the many young somalis and soviets and other immigrants who came over the decades. it is my hope that our aspirations will continue to

guide us through 2019 and forever more. on this the 75th anniversary of d-day, i thank you for your goodness, your decency and your leadership. god bless you. all week, we are featuring american history tv programs as preview of what is available every weekend on c-span3, lex churs in american history, american artifacts, real america, the civil war, or ral histories, the presidency and special event coverage about the nation's history, and enjoy american history tv now and every weekend on c-span3. week nights this month we are featuring american tv programs as preview of what is available every week night on c-span3.

tonight, there is a discussion on the correlation of violence and political change from the time of the american revolution to present day. watch american history tv tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span3. sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern, a special call-in program looking back at woodstock, the 1969 music and cultural phenomenon. and "the age of great dreams" author david farber will join us to take the phone calls. >> and who takes the drugs and what effect they had in the late 1960s and early 1970s is something that we are still struggling to find out. and those who have studied it

realize it is not just what happened in 1960s, but the production of the history and what drugs we use at a particular place in society have an incredible knowledge of the time. >> and also, leading up to woodstock and the legacy. "woodstock 50 years" on c-span journal and live on american history tv on c-span3. american history continues with how the issues are with us today concerning refugees. jimmy carter signed the refugee act which raised the ceiling for the number of refugees to be allowed. this is an hour and a half.