Speech #1040066183

Mr. President. a couple of weeks ago. the administration concluded a migration agreement with Cuba that I hope will be the first step in the direction of a rational policy toward Cuba. Under this agreement. most of the 15 to 20.000 Cubans that have been housed in Guantanamo Bay for the past several months will be paroled into the United States. with those paroles to count. on a 3year prorated basis. against the 10.000 minimum CubatoAmerica immigration numbers agreed upon by the Cuban and American Governments last fall. Cuba has also agreed to accept back those Cubans at Guantanamo who are excludable under United States law because of criminal histories. infectious diseases. et cetera. Thus. within the limits set out in last falls agreement between Cuba and the United States. this agreement has solved the costly and potentially explosive detention of the Cubans at Guantanamo. As part of this new policy. the Attorney General has also announced that those attempting in the future to emigrate to the United States from Cuba illegallyrather than through the process agreed upon last yearwould be subject to interdiction and forced repatriation to Cuba. from where they could apply for asylum at the Cuban Interests Section in Havana. Although I have some concerns about the second half of this new approachin particular. the policy of interdiction and repatriation of future migrants from Cubaand urge the Attorney General to implement sufficient procedural protections for those Cubans with valid asylum claims. in general I view this agreement as a significant step forward in our relations with Cuba. Unlike our policies toward Cuba over the past 35 years. the agreement represents a rational and cooperative response to a United StatesCuba immigration problem that has caused this Nation nothing but headaches in the past. If our Government could approach every United StatesCuba issue with the pragmatism that is reflected in this agreement. I believe that our longsought goal of democratization of Cuba would be much closer to our grasp than this goal is now.