Mr. Speaker. the resolution which is before us expresses the sense of Congress that the President exercise his authority under acts which are named to expend funds for assistance to certain Cuban refugees. namely students who need this assistance because of the authoritarian restrictions placed on the activities of those citizens by the Cuban Government or because they are refugees in the United States from the present Government of Cuba. In a discussion of the importance of this resolution I would like to go back just a moment in order to bring us up to date. When Castro took over the Government of Cuba we had a transition period there for a while in which some of us said: "Lets wait and see." Others were happy. and others were sad. I was one of those who said. "Lets wait and see what happens." Being from Miami. a point close to Cuba. the wait and see attitude was not too long in evolving into "Now you know what the answer is" because refugees started streaming Into Miami and other areas of the country at a very high rate. It was not too long after the Castro regime took over that we in Florida and other areas of the country had the Batista refugees and also the Castro refugees. They were both seeking haven in the United States. and we got a tremendous number of them in Miami. but other areas of the country also received Cuban refugees. These people came in seeking shelter. seeking homes. seeking freedom. running from threats of destruction. personal and otherwise. The local citizens tried to do all that it was possible to assist the refugees. The local Cuban community. the Latin community. took them into their homes. and local welfare organizations tried to provide for the refugees. The church. both Catholic and Protestant. did everything they possibly could to take care of these people. We had various citizens committees assisting in this problem. It was not too long before it became very obvious to those people who worked very. very hard in trying to solve the problem. that it was beyond the capability of the citizens of the local area. Under the leadership of the great newspaper. the Miami Herald a citizens group was formed to alert the people of the United States to the fact that this was really a national problem and not a problem for Miami and Florida. for New Orleans. New York. or other cities where they had communities of these Cuban refugees. That was the situation under the leadership and under the efforts of the local people whose resources were exhausted. when President Eisenhower. in November of 1960 appointed Tracy Voorhees who had great experience in refugee problems. to study it and report. Mr. Voorhees took over the job as the Presidents personal representative. and in a very short time it became obvious to him that this. indeed. was not a local problem but a national one.
Keywords matched
refugee refugees