Eventually. the Government opened a new processing center for illegal entrants in Puerto Rico and. under our prodding. the conditions at Krome were improved. Last year. in order to assure that such crises would not occur again. I joined with Senator HUDDLESTON in introducing an immigration reform proposal. S. 776. That bill called for streamlining our appeals procedures and for closing the loopholes in the annual immigration ceiling and for doing something about illegal jobs. the magnet which attracts illegal migrants to the United States. Nevertheless. despite these few bright spots. the problems facing Florida are far from being solved. Every attempt to get Federal reimbursement for costs incurred in providing for the refugees has been a major struggle and Florida has been forced to bear many costs which the Federal Government should have carried. Every time we passed a bill or received some aid. we found OMB or some agency trying to take that money away. or to put tremendous burdens on the State. or delaying the payments owed to the State. Little has been done about the backlog of some 17.000 asylum cases now pending in Florida. Some of the Haitians who came here last summer have been held in the Krome Detention Center for over a year pending the outcome of their applications for asylum. It is not surprising. given the lack of policy and direction in todays immigration laws. that the Haitian issue ended up being decided in the courts. Homicide remains the major cause of death among Mariel refugees. Dade County is facing a critical shortage of jail space due to the 500 Mariel refugees who are being held there for crimes they committed in Florida. Those 500 have averaged over two felony arrests each in the 2 years they have been here. As a result of this overcrowding.
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immigration asylum cases migrants refugees