Speech #960240151

For many. that means reunion with family and friends. For all. it means something they have not known in Cuba--freedom. The Cubans I spoke with are Americas newest immigrants. They come here as we move into a new decade and as we look forward to a new century. But. essentially. they remain the same in spirit as Americas immigrants who came to our shores generations ago. Immigrants built America. And. since. as a nation. we must continue to rebuild and renew. these newest immigrants can be a necessary and important part of our future. America today is different from 50 or 100 years ago. Our problems are more complex. our frontiers are different. Yet our opportunities and responsibilities remain unchanged. One of those responsibilities will be our job to assimilate these refugees into our society. not simply in a manner that cools a hot political issue. but in a way that will help make them productive. contributing people. with a sense of community and citizenship. Careful resettlement is a prerequisite both to achieve this goal. and to avoid burdening other Americans and their communities. Resettlement should be organized to guarantee refugees are found permanent sponsors as soon as possible. Undue strain should not be placed upon those communities in which temporary retention centers are located. Refugees must be carefully screened and registered for permanent record. They must then be placed. whenever possible. with immediate relatives or reliable sponsors who will undertake both a moral and substantive commitment to see that each refugee is able to work toward productive citizenship. and not become a ward of the State or part of a welfare subculture. Mr. President. I see it as one of my responsibilties as a U.S. Senator to insure that sound. intelligence resettlement procedures are. in fact. carried out and that the principles and objectives I have described are met. That is why I went to Indiantown Gap yesterday to get. at first hand. a birdseye view of the resettlement procedures for the Cuban refugees there. In the days to come the ranks of Cubans at Fort Indiantown Gap will swell to about 22.000. It is my opinion. based on my visit. that FEMA is coordinating an organized and responsible program to expedite the refugees resettlement. From personal observation I can report that. upon arrival. each refugee is carefully identified and placed on record with the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization. Further. each refugee is then administered health tests and later security screening which is intended to detect those undesirables or criminals of whom Castro sought to unburden himself. In addition. I am satisfied that. for current conditions. appropriation security precautions have been undertaken for the refugees now present at Fort Indiantown Gap. FEMA officials have guarded against creating a concentration camptype atmosphere. while maintaining boundaries and guards that protect against unforeseen occurrences and insure that resettlement takes place only after placement in a specific home. If refugees are detained for on overly long period of time. it is possible that we would need to reevaluate these arrangements. Resettlement is being handled primarily by volunteer agencies which are working with the State Department. Thus far. over 1.400 sponsors have come forward in a 10State area in the northeastern part of this country. Two hundred and seventy of those are from my State of Pennsylvania. In fact. 65 to 70 percent of all refugees have potential instant sponsorsrelatives now residing in- the United States. Within the first 10 days of operation. authorities at Fort Indiantown Gap have processed and already physically placed 10 refugees with their families. That small sign of progress should accelerate rapidly in the weeks to come. But while progress is being made. a firsthand view of Fort Indiantown Gap can help us recognize the limitation of our ability to allow unlimited immigration. We have unemployment problems in this country and we have to be sensitive to striking a balance. We need to be certain that those people who are genuine political refugees do have an opportunity herewithout breaking down our borders so that anybody can come in under any circumstances. It is not just Cubans who want to emigrate to the United States. it is not just Haitians or Mexicans. It is just about everybody in the less developed world. It would be clearly wrong to allow all of these people free entry into the United States.