THE NEW ASYLUM

For years, America has opened her arms to oppressed and persecuted, the poor and destitute. And as our immigration law states, our shores are to be a temporary safe haven for those fleeing their homelands for "life or freedom." Now, however, the Clinton administration wants to change that aspect of immigration policy. By the stroke of a pen, Attorney General Janet Reno recently broadened the definition of preferential political asylum in the United States for immigrants claiming to be homosexuals. This is plain nonsense.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of refugees try to evade persecution for their political or religious beliefs and escape to our great nation. In fact, immigration specialists estimate that by February 1995, there will be a backlog of 600,000 cases and more than 1 million people in the U.S. asylum system. Opening those doors even wider -- strictly for sexual preference -- is ridiculous, breathes of potential fraud, and unwisely uses taxpayer dollars.

Asylum in the U.S. must be reserved for those who truly are persecuted back home, not those who have found a loophole in the administration's foreign policy. But in her ruling, the attorney general reasoned that homosexuals are persecuted "because of membership in a social group." This is nothing more than the Clinton White House continuing to proceed in the direction of classifying sexual preference as a protected civil right.

Carving out new legal rights for a chosen sexual behavior under the guise of political asylum is a sham. It puts anyone claiming to be homosexual in line ahead of and/or takes slots away from legitimate refugees who flee risking life and limb. Political asylum in America should remain a temporary protection for those who have nowhere else to turn, not a political tool to protect one of the president's special interest groups.

Bill Emerson represents the eighth district in the U.S. House of Representatives.