THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 19, 1994 TAG: 9408190627
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Faced with a growing influx of Cuban refugees, President Clinton decided Thursday night that Cubans rescued at sea will be sent to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay rather than to the United States, administration officials said.
As a first step, Cubans picked up at sea will be detained indefinitely by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Attorney General Janet Reno announced at a hastily called news conference Thursday night.
The Cubans would be held until a ``determination'' is made on how they will be processed for entry, Reno said, but declined to say where they would be held.
Earlier Wednesday, Defense Secretary William Perry ordered the military to begin preparations to deal with the refugees.
In Gulfport, Miss., the Navy prepared equipment for two tent cities for shipment to South Florida and use as temporary housing for the detained Cubans.
Pentagon sources said Key West and Homestead Air Force base in South Florida are being considered as sites for processing refugees.
One source said plans call for a facility to process up to 3,000 refugees at Key West and 5,000 to 8,000 at Homestead.
The plan to send the Cubans to Guantanamo, on Cuba's southeastern tip, is to be announced at a presidential news conference at 1:30 this afternoon, officials said. The decision upends nearly three decades of policy toward Cuba. Under the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, Cubans who touch American shores are effectively granted immediate political asylum. By custom, automatic asylum was extended to Cubans rescued at sea.
Under the new policy, officials said, Cubans taken to Guantanamo might have to apply for asylum under normal procedures. That means they would have to show a well-founded fear of persecution by Cuba's leftist government.
The refugees might also be able to apply for routine immgration, by virtue of family ties or other criteria. The precise procedures could not be ascertained Thursday night.
At Guantanamo, the Cubans would join nearly 15,000 Haitian refugees who have been there since a refugee camp was opened at the base seven weeks ago in response to a crisis over persons fleeing Haiti's military government.
If Guantanamo fills up, the Cubans would be taken to third countries, if havens elsewhere can be found for them, officials said. Currently, there is room for at least 6,000 Cubans at Guantanamo.
Clinton made the decision on the Cubans after two lengthy meetings of foreign policy advisers and representatives of the Justice Department. He was responding to an upsurge in arrivals of Cubans in Florida after Cuban leader Fidel Castro recently loosened controls over citizens willing to set off across the Florida Straits in rafts or other makeshift vessels.
The inflow of nearly 2,000 Cubans in the past week, the highest rate since 1980, led Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles to proclaim a state of emergency and accuse the Clinton administration of being in ``denial'' over the seriousness of the situation.
No additional military forces have been ordered to the 90-mile strait between Cuba and Florida, but the Navy has 14 ships nearby.
Seven ships are patrolling waters off Haiti as part of an international trade embargo against that country and could not be called on without diminishing the effectiveness of the blockade, said Cmdr. Steve Pietropaoli, a Navy spokesman. Two other ships, carrying 1,800 Marines, are in the same seas for possible use in an invasion of Haiti and another five are in the Caribbean south of Cuba on counter-drug patrols, Pietropaoli said. MEMO: Staff writer Dale Eisman contributed to this report.
by CNB