Speech #960232345

Mr. President. the apparent open door policy which has permitted the immigration of more than 20.000 refugees from Cuba has very serious economic implications. both for those communities which are receiving the refugees and for the Nation as well. A program of assistance for largescale immigration from Cuba could add as much as $1 billion a year to the cost of refugee assistance. At the same time. we are being inundated with Mexican nationals numbering in the hundreds of thousands who cross our borders either to work illegally or to burden our welfare rolls and strain the capacity of our schools and other services. It has been predicted that Mexican Americans will soon become the largest ethnic group in the United States.