THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 3, 1995 TAG: 9505030440
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long : 109 lines
In a dramatic turnabout of U.S. immigration policy toward Cuba, the Clinton administration announced Tuesday that the United States will grant entry to most of the 21,000 Cuban boat people at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, but will forcibly return future refugees intercepted at sea.
The decision reflects the end of a decades-old policy that gave Cubans special treatment by allowing them to bypass standard asylum procedures.
The change was harshly criticized by Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and by Cuban-American lawmakers. They voiced outrage, saying the decision would legitimize the Marxist government of President Fidel Castro in the eyes of the world.
The change also caused a rift inside the State Department, where two officials involved in Cuban policy asked to be reassigned in protest.
The two - Dennis Hays, the State Department's coordinator for Cuban affairs, and his deputy, Nancy Mason - were angered by the decision to repatriate fleeing Cubans, officials said.
Hays headed the U.S. delegation to three rounds of talks with Cuban officials on migration issues, most recently two weeks ago in New York. He is known as a strong supporter of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba and to have close ties to conservative Cuban-American lawmakers.
Attorney General Janet Reno announced the move Tuesday, portraying it as a new strategy to preempt violence at the U.S. base in Cuba - where the refugees have been housed in makeshift camps for months - and to avert another exodus from the island nation.
Response from Cuban-American leaders was mixed. While they expressed delight that people detained at the naval base would be permitted to immigrate, they complained bitterly that future refugees would be turned away.
Some Republicans accused President Clinton of shutting the doors on a safe haven that for 35 years has beckoned Cubans fleeing Castro's communist state.
``It's a very lamentable decision,'' said Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who represents the Miami area.
Said Helms, ``How sad it is that the United States is now viewed as an accomplice in Castro's repression of the Cuban people.''
The new policy has three basic elements:
Except for refugees with criminal records, special medical or legal problems, all Cubans in the safe haven will be admitted to the United States on a case-by-case basis as special Guantanamo entrants. They will be eligible for special humanitarian parole under guidelines announced by President Clinton last October and December. The Cuban government will accept all those Cubans in U.S. custody who want to return or are ineligible for U.S. entry.
Future Cuban boat people who manage to reach U.S. soil will be candidates for deportation, Reno said. They will be ``placed in exclusion proceedings, and treated as are all illegal migrants from other countries, including giving them the opportunity to apply for asylum.''
The United States will intercept Cubans who flee the island by sea and forcibly return them to Cuba, where they must apply for U.S. entry through legal channels at the U.S. interest section in Havana.
Some 6,000 American troops are stationed at Guantanamo, and the administration said it was increasingly concerned about their safety.
Moreover, it has been costing the United States $1 million a day to guard the Cubans, and the administration was facing a $100 million bill to upgrade the camps.
The White House said that ``relatively few'' of the Cubans in Guantanamo would not qualify for admission to the United States; those deemed ineligible will be returned to Havana. The remainder will be gradually admitted to the United States under a policy that allows up to 20,000 legal entrants each year from Cuba.
The White House unveiled the new approach in a joint statement that was simultaneously issued by the Castro government. It marked the second agreement on immigration issues in eight months; Sept. 9, the United States persuaded Castro to stem the exodus by agreeing to admit a minimum of 20,000 Cubans a year.
Reno said the number of Cubans leaving Guantanamo would be incorporated into that annual total. ``There will be no net increase in Cuban migration,'' she said.
Though the agreement will clear Guantanamo of migrants, Marine Gen. John J. Sheehan told reporters that the Pentagon will proceed with plans to dramatically scale back use of the base, the oldest U.S. military installation on foreign soil.
``I don't think Gitmo is ever going to be fully functional military facility,'' said Sheehan, head of the Norfolk-based U.S. Atlantic Command.
Sheehan suggested that all the services will continue to use the base airport and small arms firing ranges; the Navy also apparently will use the base as a supply center for ships operating in the Caribbean.
The Navy announced plans last month to transfer its Atlantic Fleet training center from Guantanamo to Mayport, Fla., citing the strain that migrant operations had put on the Cuba base. As a training site, Guantanamo had played host to thousands of sailors and Marines annually.
There apparently is little prospect for thousands of military dependents who were evacuated from Guantanamo last summer as Cubans streamed into the base, to return to their former homes. Sheehan said return of the dependents is being studied but suggested it wouldn't come before the migrants are fully evacuated, if then.
Sheehan said about 5,000 of the migrants already have been cleared for admission to the U.S., under a several-months-old policy that allows the elderly, sick, unaccompanied minors and caregivers for migrants in those groups to leave if they have sponsors in America.
For the other 15,000, Sheehan said his command intends to step up educational programs to ease their transition. He has dropped plans to spend about $100 million on physical improvements that would have made the camps more permanent, he said. MEMO: Staff writer Dale Eisman contributed to this report.
KEYWORDS: REFUGEES CUBA by CNB