Word: sealift
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...more than 2,000 refugees had been brought to U.S. shores. Fidel Castro had unleashed the exodus by opening Mariel to foreign boats and issuing exit visas to those who wanted to leave. The impromptu rescue operation angered and embarrassed the Carter Administration, which held that the sealift was illegal and that the refugees were, at least technically, illegal aliens. To stem the tide, the U.S. Department of State warned that the skippers of the refugee boats could be liable for a $1,000 fine for each exile carried; moreover, their vessels could be seized and held by the Government...
...grant it. Though there seemed little doubt last week that the Cuban boat people would eventually be granted permanent residence, Washington was clearly unhappy with their method of arrival. "What you have here is not a rational process," said State Department Spokesman Thomas Reston of the sealift. "What you have is Castro's solution to the problem...
Thus began the remarkable sealift. In Miami, boat stores quickly sold out of maps of the waters around Cuba. "We're selling anything that floats," said Oscar Rodriguez, manager of B & F marine store. "People are buying lifesavers, lamps, rope-anything, just as long as they need it on a trip to Cuba." Cars with boat trailers clogged the narrow two-lane road from the Florida mainland to Key West; some bore license plates from states as far away as New York. Drowsy Key West, just entering its off-season slumber, bucked to life as drivers steered their bulky...