Mr. President. I rise in support of the comments made by the senior Senator from Florida regarding the need to grant the President of the United States special emergency powers in the event of an immigration emergency. Our Nation was caught unprepared during 1980. when Fidel Castro opened the Martel Harbor on the north coast of Cuba to anyone who wished to leave his island paradise. As Senators know. Castro included along with bonafide Cuban emigrants significant numbers of criminals. social outcasts. mentally handicapped. and Cuban spies. The cost of our goodwill has been highover $1.1 billion. Especially exasperating is the tremendous cost to such localities as Dade County in south Florida. which has had to cope with the tremendous increase in demand for social and community services as 120.000 people descended into the area in a matter of months. Let me try to give Senators an idea of the numbers of homeless people involved in the Mariel boatlift. In a period of about 5 months. according to the 1980 census. roughly the same number of undocumented aliens arrived on Floridas shores as populate the cities of Peoria. Ill.. South Bend.
Identified stereotypes
Generalization that Cuban emigrants included criminals, social outcasts, mentally handicapped, and Cuban spies.