Speech #1100136922

I thank the distinguished member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. and I join him as a fellow member of the Foreign Affairs Committee to applaud and congratulate the distinguished gentleman from Florida who has a long history of representing Haitians in Florida. and who has a long history of concern for the Haitian people both today and in the past. As a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and one who has traveled to Haiti and visited individuals who were incarcerated because of their beliefs in democracy. this commemoration is important because it reemphasizes the longstanding friendship between the United States and the Haitian people. I am saddened by the journey that Haitians have had to take over the last decade from Baby Doc and the oppressive leadership that they have had in past years. and their desire of necessity to flee because of persecution to the United States. and then. of course. the double standard between the wet feetl dry feet immigration policies where many of them have been treated in a discriminatory fashion. This accolade is long overdue. I might acknowledge the fact that this was in the early years of our beginning.