[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14766]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



            SUSPEND CLINTON-CASTRO MAY 1995 MIGRATION ACCORD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Diaz-Balart) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Madam Speaker, I rise to call for the immediate 
suspension by the Clinton administration of the May 1995 Migration 
Accord with the Cuban dictatorship and to urge the adoption of a 
serious U.S. policy of assistance to the Cuban internal opposition, and 
other steps to accelerate the liberation of Cuba and an end to the 
refugee tragedy, as well as to the threats to U.S. national security 
posed by the Castro dictatorship, all of which are being covered up and 
ignored by the Clinton administration.
  This administration's policy towards Cuba can no longer hold. The 
administration cannot continue to sweep the Cuban crisis under the 
carpet. The Cuban crisis and the tragedy of the oppression of the Cuban 
people must no longer be treated as an immigration issue. We must 
address the issue comprehensively as one of vital U.S. national 
security, including the need to stop Cuban narcotrafficking, a 
congressional hearing on which will take place very soon.
  Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. 
Burton) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Gilman) and their staffs 
for their critical work on this very serious matter.
  We also have to realize that this problem, the problem of the Cuban 
dictatorship, is one of biological weapons development, of promotion of 
international terrorism, of destabilization of the Western Hemisphere, 
of alliances with rogue states in furtherance of anti-American 
interests, and of the promotion of international criminal activity.
  The way to solve the immigration problem is to solve the national 
security problem and the tragedy of the oppression of the Cuban people. 
Before Castro's takeover of Cuba in 1959, never, even during the worst 
poverty of the economic depression of the 1930s, not only were there no 
rafters, there was not even 1 year when the U.S. quota allotment of 
immigrant visas for Cuba was filled. The Cuban people are not an 
emigrant people. They are desperately seeking freedom today due to the 
totalitarian oppression and economic destruction caused by the Castro 
dictatorship.
  Yesterday, off the coast of Miami Beach, we saw an unfortunate 
demonstration of the profoundly unacceptable nature of the Clinton 
policy of focusing on the Cuban tragedy as an immigration issue. The 
policy is deeply flawed.
  The United States should immediately, one, first suspend the immoral 
and illegal Clinton-Castro Migration Accord of May 1995, which violates 
the generous tradition of the American people with regard to refugees 
from Soviet Bloc countries and also violates the Cuban Adjustment Act 
of 1966.
  Secondly, inform Castro with all clarity that any attempt to 
fabricate a new crisis for the United States, such as by attempting to 
send massive amounts of refugees, shall be responded to with immediate 
U.S. action which would include a naval blockade of Cuba, not only of 
refugees which would be returned to the Cuban shore, but also of all 
oil shipments to the island.
  And, thirdly, initiate a serious and vigorous program of assistance 
to the Cuban internal opposition and other steps to hasten the demise 
of the Cuban dictatorship and the reestablishment of democracy and the 
rule of law in Cuba.
  The time has come, Madam Speaker, to end the suffering and oppression 
of Cuba, not to fire water cannons and pepper spray on defenseless 
Cuban refugees trying to swim to freedom.

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