Statement by the President Upon Signing Bill for the Relief of Irfan Kawar.

THE BILL (S. 1483) for the relief of Irfan Kawar would grant permanent resident immigration status to Mr. Kawar, a native of Nazareth, Palestine, and a national of Jordan. Mr. Kawar entered the United States on September 24, 1951, under an exchange-visitor visa in order to accept a graduate fellowship at Princeton University. He has received extensions of stay to enable him to take up subsequent fellowships at Princeton and Harvard University, and is presently employed as an assistant professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, teaching the Arabic language and literature.

In the absence of special circumstances, I am opposed to adjusting the immigration status of individuals who enter the United States as participants in the program for the international exchange of persons under the provisions of Public Law 402, 80th Congress, as amended. They come with the specific understanding that they will return home and put to use there the knowledge and experience which they have gained in the United States. Permitting such an individual to remain in the United States as a permanent resident negates the whole purpose of the program.

In Mr. Kawar's case, however, the evidence indicates that he was issued an exchange-visitor visa by mistake, that he was not sponsored by Princeton University as an exchange student, and did not participate in any way in the exchange-visitor program. He was eligible for, and could have been issued, a regular student visa. Because the type of visa issued to him was issued through error, and because he did not participate in the exchange program, I have approved the bill for his relief.