Speech #980061040

On May 25. Assistant Secretary Thomas 0. Enders announced that the United States would discontinue the issuance of immigrant visas in Cuba indefinitely. While immigrant visas to immediate relativesspouses. minor children. and parentsand nonimmigrant visas will still be issued. immigrant visas in all the preference categoriesmarried and unmarried brothers and sisters. et ceterawill not. except to Cuban applicants in third countries. The recent action by the State Department is consistent with the provisions of section 243(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. however. it nonetheless raises serious questions. First. since no visas have been issued to otherwise qualified preference category applicants since 1980. on what grounds have they been previously withheld and what new hardship does the new ruling inflict? Second. is this action designed to legitimate and formalize what has been previously a de facto policy? Third. whom do we intend to punish for the sins of the Castro government? Does not this action penalize U.S. citizens seeking to be reunited with their relatives in Cuba? These and other questions were recently addressed by the former chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana in a letter he wrote to the editor of the New York Times critical of our immigration policy toward Cuba. He suggests that political considerations may have supplanted the law in our policy toward Cuba. There is a disturbing irony in this affair. Thousands of Cuban nationals have been placed in limbo since 1980. even though they had fully complied with our immigration laws and had qualified for immigrant visas under the preference categories. Yet while there is general agreement that the Castro government is a repressive dictatorship. the United States has simultaneously closed the door on those wishing to leave. I would hope that we can resolve this inconsistency.