These detainees. along with another 1.500 or so. are not serving criminal sentences. Rather. they are being held because our Government has decided that their continued presence in this country is unacceptable. As part of the Mariel boatlift. these detainees came to the United States in 1980 when President Carter promised to greet them with "an open heart and open arms." Their continaed imprisonment is. as the Boston Globe has recently described it. "a mocking memory. a reminder that they lack even the basic constitutional rights granted to illegal aliens who sneak over the border." The plight of the Mariel Cubans. or "Marielitos." reminds me of a verse of scripture: "Do not mistreat foreigners who are living in your land. Treat them as a fellow Israelite and love them as you would love yourselves. Remember that you were foreigners in the land of Egypt." [Leviticus 19:33.] I believe we have failed this Biblical command in the case of the Marielitos.
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illegal aliens