Speech #960238961

Mr. President. I addressed this body briefly on the Cuban refugee situation on May 1. A lot of things have happened since then and they have not been good. This morning. I want to talk briefly with reference to our entire problem of immigration as a whole. and the Cuban group in particular. At that time in early May. I urged the President to take action to stop the use of American boats to encourage those who want to leave Cuba to enter the United States and to make certain that our immigration laws are followed in the admission of the limited number of aliens authorized from Cuba and other countries each year. My investigation into the matter indicated that the U.S. enforcement authorities. the Immigration and Naturalization Service. the U.S. Coast Guard. and the U.S. Customs Service. were overwhelmed by the massive numbers of private boats attempting to transport Cuban refugees from the port of Mariel. Cuba. to Key West. Fla. The authorities were not taking action to enforce effectively the immigration laws and laws relating to boat safety. Really. it was impossible to properly do so. The officials then were only serving a notice of intent to fine to boat owners as the boats laden with Cuban refugees docked at Key West. It became clear to me that the threat of imposing a fine of $1.000 per passenger was not a sufficient deterrent to prevent departures from Key West for Cuba. In fact. there were reports that -some boat owners and operators only raised the charter fee to accommodate prospective fines. Meanwhile the boats continued from Key West to Cuba and return. Daily. there have been reports of the mounting numbers of undocumented aliens. arriving at Key West. as well as reports of capsizings and loss of human lives. On Wednesday. May 14. the President acted to stop the flow of refugees. On Thursday. radio messages were sent to the boats at sea not to accept passengers in Cuba and departures from Key West were discouraged by the enforcement agencies. In this regard. the local boat operators. for the most part have voluntarily remained in port. However. in the case of those who have not cooperated seizures of the boats were made. I am pleased that the Presidents policy appears to be working and that some control of the Cuban refugee flow has been established. The enforcement agencies have been reinforced and are now doing an outstanding job under the new policy. but I do not think the policy has enough meaning. The Coast Guard has performed nearly 800 search and rescue missions in a monumental humanitarian effort.