They tracked that passenger list. Several hundred of them were
rejected by the United States. They were not given refugee status. They
were forced to return to Germany. Several hundred of them perished in
the Holocaust. It was after that bitter experience that the United States decided to
try to set an example for the world when it came to compassion and
humanity for refugees. We stepped up time and again to be that place of
security and safety. We can point proudly to the fact that when the
Cubans were fearful of a Communist takeover in their country, fearful
for their lives and their rights and their liberties, they came to the
United States in tens of thousands. Now Cuban Americans, a proud part of our country not only in Florida
but around our Nation, can point to the U.S. refugee policy as the
means by which they finally made it to the safety of the United States. Here we were in a Cold War with the Soviet Union; Cuba, 90 miles off
our shore was being taken over by a dictator, Fidel Castro, who was
declaring his loyalty to the Soviet Union. Yet we were readily
receiving tens of thousands of refugees from Cuba in the midst of that
Cold War. Talk about a chance--and taking a chance. Those men and women
who came to the United States were not vetted for months, years, and in
many cases not at all.
Keywords matched
refugee refugees