European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 12, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes tuesday november 12, 1985 Carl Rowan America plays politics with refugees from terror i close my Eves to visualise the scene and my flesh crawls. A Sovil Grain ship inc marshal Konov steams into the Mississippi River near new Orleans. A soviet Sailor jumps off the vessel and swims too Yards to what he thinks is Freedom. Do cheers Greet him no. Just the . Border patrol and some russian enforcers who together haul the kicking and screaming Man Back to the soviet ship. The . Immigration and naturalization service ins says the language Gap caused the inadvertent . Role resulting in years of imprisonment and cruel punishment. Some americans Sug Gest that he was hauled Back because timid politicians Don t want him muddying the Waters of sum Mitry when president Reagan meets soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva. I Don t believe anyone is silly enough or Craven enough to think that throwing this Sailor o the goons is going to make Suc Cess More Likely at the . When american leaders have called the soviet Union an evil Empire and its leaders thugs and when the . Has hundreds of rockets targeted on Moscow Leningrad and Kiev the meat and Bones of one anguished Sailor Are hardly going to be a meeting maker. I think the ins acted foolishly in this Case just As it has acted foolishly with regard to haitians salvadorans and others seeking Sanctuary from murderously oppressive regimes because our Laws Are foolish and subject to political prejudices on the Issue of who gets shelter. Just As i am troubled by the thwarting of the russian s bid for Freedom so i am troubled by that trial out of Tucson ariz., where Federal prosecutors want to convict As felons ii clergymen nuns and Lay workers who have been smuggling guatemalans and salvadorans into . Sanc traries. As it tries to lower the Legal Boom on these alien  the administration leaves me with no doubt that it macs with special passion because the Sanctuary people Are Active opponents of the Reagan policy of intervention in Central America. I also am sure that some of the Sanctuary people Are using refugees for their political ends. This bothers me but not As much As the reality that political ideology always has dominated . Policy on everything related to immigration. Cubans have been Welcome As is Capers of Castro s communist  haitians were unwelcome As Mere is Capers from poverty since the United Stata would not quarrel with the Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti. Anyone fleeing persecution by a regime that the . Does not like can get Legal sane. Teary in America. That is Why so Many Huri Marians czechs. Vietnamese iranians ind afghans have been admitted. The United Sta is does not want too cede that right Wing death squads and leftist murderers Are a plague in Al Salva Dor and Guatemala and that people flee ing these countries deserve shelter. We need a policy that says terror it terrible tyranny is despotic political Mur Der is despicable no matter the ideology of the terrorists or killers. And we ought to open our doors at least temporarily to those who run from any of the political maniacs of the world. C Newt Merlc san decal what Eutt