We have all watched the drama on our television screensthe scenes of overcrowded boats loaded with men. women. and childrentheir rescue from hazardous seas by the resolute seafarers of the U.S. Coast Guardtheir incarceration in overcrowded conditions at Guantanamo Bayand yes. Mr. Speaker. the involuntary repatriation of many of them to the control of the same brutal regime they had fled. This drama has presented the administration and now. this House. with some substantial dilemmas. Our laws have long recognized a valid distinction between refugees and economic migrants. What should our Nation do when political persecution and disorder combine with the worst poverty in the Western Hemisphere to prompt such an exodus? Can we be confident that returnees suffer no retribution when an understaffed U.S.
Keywords matched
migrants refugees