Word: haitian
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...simple in theory: anyone with a well-founded fear of persecution is entitled to political asylum in the U.S. Someone who is desperate to find a job and feed a family is not. Until now, Bill Clinton has avoided trying to tell them apart and simply repatriated all Haitian boat people to Port-au-Prince. His new plan to process their claims at sea and grant refuge to the deserving quieted domestic criticism but may not do the job. Here's how it would work...
SHIPBOARD PROCESSING. When Washington had officials do initial screening of Haitians on Coast Guard cutters from September 1981 to mid-1991, only 24 of the 24,589 interviewed were found to have a credible enough claim of persecution to enter the U.S. to pursue their case. Clinton has ordered officials to conduct full interviews aboard larger chartered vessels. They would decide on the spot, unhampered by lawyers or the lengthy due process that often prolongs cases in the U.S. for years, who deserves refugee status. Steven Forrester, a lawyer with Miami's Haitian Refugee Center, questions the process: "Terrified refugees...
DISTURBING PROMISES. Trying to placate immigrant-shy politicians in Florida, Clinton pledged that the switch would bring no flood of refugees. Another official said the acceptance rate would remain at its current 5% level. That disturbs those who believe the persecution rate is growing. They argue that all Haitian refugees should be awarded temporary protected status, a category that admits refugees into the U.S. for only as long as their countries are in turmoil and that applied during crises to Salvadorans, Kuwaitis and Somalis...
...move left Bill Clinton fumbling for an effective retort just when he had adopted stern new measures himself. He had persuaded the United Nations to harden sanctions against Haiti's outlaw regime. He had announced a new asylum policy that would end the unpopular practice of forcibly repatriating Haitian refugees without a hearing. He had appointed William Gray III, head of the United Negro College Fund, as Washington's new Haiti czar. Now he dangled threats of a military invasion of the island nation...
...official White House line was a flat denial that an invasion is imminent, but the signals emanating from the Cabinet were more mixed. A report in Wednesday's Los Angeles Times, which stated that the U.S. was readying "600 heavily armed and protected troops" to purge the Haitian military, prompted Secretary of Defense William Perry to comment, "I didn't recognize it as any plan we're working on." The same report drew from Secretary of State Warren Christopher a less guarded response: "That's the kind of force that's being discussed." U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright weighed in with...