Mr. President. today President Clinton has announced the conclusion of a new migration agreement with the Government of Cuba. This new agreement treats the more than 15.000 Cuban migrants currently detained at Guantanamo in a very humane manner. while putting in place safeguards to ensure that a similar flood of migrants is not encouraged at some future date. I want to commend the President for his decision to enter into. what I believe is a fair and balanced approach to handling the Cuban migrant issue. Under the terms of the agreement. Cuban migrants currently being detained at Guantanamo will now be eligible to be paroled into the United States. provided they qualify under United States immigration laws. Those paroled from Guantanamo will be counted in the annual 20.000 migration ceiling set last September in the context of the resolution of last years Cuban migration crisis. This will mean that people at Guantanamo who have been in limbo since last year will now have the possibility of getting on with their lives. To continue to detain these people indefinitely was really inhumane. but nothing else could be done for them until this new agreement was reached with the Government of Cuba. In contrast to the treatment of those currently at Guantanamo. any future Cuban rafters intercepted at sea will be returned to Havana. Cuban authorities have committed to accepting these migrants back without reprisal. and will allow for the monitoring of such Individuals to ensure that this is the case. Obviously. any individual who might qualify for refugee status will be able to apply for asylum at the U.S. Interest Section in Havana. Finally. those Cubans who may successfully evade interdiction and reach the United States will be subject to the same deportation procedures any other alien would face upon entering the United States illegally. Mr. President. as you know I am in profound disagreement with our overall policy toward Cuba.
Keywords matched
immigration refugee deportation migrant migrants