Speech #890137979

However. I raise my voice. as I did in subcommittee and in committee. against it as an action which. in my judgment. is most unwise. unnecessary. and very sad indeed in this very sensitive area. I am pleased that with respect to another issue the Committee on the Judiciary has accepted an amendment which I proposed. along with some of my colleagues on the committee. the Senator in charge of the bill. the Senator from Massachusetts . and the Senator from Michigan . and the Senator from Hawaii to permit Western Hemisphere refugees to adjust their status to that of lawful. permanent residents once they have arrived in the United States. and without leaving the country. as is required for other Western Hemisphere immigrants under the provisions of the pending bill. At this time. such a provision would apply to those who escape from Cuba. Because the United States does not have diplomatic relations with Cuba. it is impossible for Cubans to obtain immigrant visas through normal channels. as Is the case for people in other Western Hemisphere countries. Since the takeover in Cuba by Fidel Castro on January 1. 1959. some 280.058 people of Cuban birth entered the United States. of which number 55.535 were immigrants and 100.284 were paroled refugees. The year 1962 was the peak year for the admission of parolees. with the number reaching almost 65.000. Since the break in diplomatic relations with Cuba. the peak year for entering immigrants was 1964 with 12.554. Though it is impossible to state exactly how many. it is fair to assume that a reasonable proportion of these immigrants were parolees who first entered the United States and then journeyed to Canada or Mexico in order to enter as immigrants. My amendment would make that very heavy expense and burden unnecessary for those who had left Cuba. I ask unanimous consent to have printed at this point in the RECORD a tabulation supplied by the Immigration and Naturalization Service of Cubans who have entered the United States year by year. This tabulation is headed. "Cubans Who Have Entered the United States. 1959 to 1965."