Congress did not account for the possibility that the United States would be a country of first asylum. When we were changing the law in 1980. we envisioned. that the people would go from Cambodia to Thailand. or that they would go from one country to another. but that they would be set up in camps outside of the United States. We could then screen the refugees and determine who should be admitted to this country. We did not know that the boats were going to land on our shores. Yet. during the Haitian influx. there were 400 to 500 refugees landing on Floridas beaches daily. Now each one of them gets a casebycase determination for their status. And now. under the court decisions. they have said that they can avail themselves to every right that a citizen has to use our courts.
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refugees