March 23, 2000

The Hon. James Oberstar
U.S. Representative
2365 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington D.C. 20515

Dear Representative Oberstar:

Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota thanks you most deeply for your co-sponsorship of HR 371 (S890), The Hmong Veterans' Naturalization Act. We hope that you can also exercise affirmative, proactive leadership to ensure that this legislation is passed into law during this Session of Congress.

As you well know, Congressman Vento's proposal is a simple and direct one: expedite the naturalization of aliens who served with special guerrilla units in service to the U. S. government in Laos by waiving the English language requirement and providing special consideration for the civics requirement.

LSS's half-century long commitment to services and advocacy in the area of immigration and resettlement arises from the deepest wells of Christian tradition, which understands us all to be strangers and sojourners in a foreign land. Welcoming the stranger is simply fundamental to the Christian faith. While we understand and accept the need for our government to regulate immigration, we insist that regulatory policies and practices be just and even-handed, respect human dignity, and reflect the generous spirit of an immensely wealthy nation.

Our support of Congressman Vento's proposal was set forth in our 1999 public policy agenda. "We will support efforts to pass the Hmong Veterans Naturalization Act, which would ease naturalization requirements for refugees from Laos who served in special military units in support of U.S. armed forces during the Vietnam War." (Appropriately, for this issue, the overall title of that 1999 document, "The Time to Build is Upon Us," is a fragment of a quotation from the inaugural speech of former South African President Nelson Mandela.)

One House member wrote us back recently to say he couldn't support the bill because all citizens should understand English and be able to name all 13 original colonies. We hold, however, that these special people, from a special place and a special time in their history and ours, deserve a special consideration for the special work they did so long ago for our government.

Please do what you can to make the promise of this bill a reality for these people who deserve every act of respect we can show them.

Sincerely,


John T. Clawson, Director
Office of Public Policy and Advocacy

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