FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Caroline Tabler or James Arnold (202) 734-0430

September 21, 2020

Cotton Introduces Bill to Prioritize Hong Kong Refugees

Washington, D.C. — Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today introduced The Hong Kong Refugee Protection Act, a bill that designates Hong Kong as a priority refugee area with up to 25,000 additional visas per year for the next five years above the regular refugee cap.

 The bill also establishes an additional 30,000 visas per year for five years to be awarded through a points-based system to attract especially qualified Hong Kongers to the United States. The additional visas for both programs would be borrowed from the “Diversity Visa” lottery.

The bill text may be found here.

“The residents of Hong Kong are no longer safe as Beijing increasingly asserts its authoritarian rule over the region. The United States’ refugee admissions program was designed to assist in exactly this type of situation, where a foreign government is subjecting innocent people to persecution on account of their religion, political beliefs, or ethnicity. My bill would prioritize Hong Kong’s residents in our refugee program and help them secure freedom from the oppressive Chinese Communist Party.”

Background

·      Earlier this year, Senator Cotton called on the administration to work with the United Kingdom and Australia to welcome Hong Kongers seeking refuge from Beijing’s authoritarian rule.

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Original article source: http://www.cotton.senate.gov?p=press_release&id=1427 | Article may or may not reflect the views of KLEK 102.5 FM or The Voice of Arkansas Minority Advocacy Council