US Lawmaker Calls for Review of Cuban Migrant Policy
By VOA News 11 January 2006
A U.S. Congressman is calling for a review of U.S. policy toward Cuban refugees after 15 Cubans were repatriated Monday.
Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Republican House member from Florida, says he is asking the White House to review the United States' "wet foot, dry foot" policy toward illegal Cuban immigrants. The policy allows Cuban refugees who reach U.S. soil to stay in the United States, but those intercepted at sea are sent back home.
Diaz-Balart told the Miami Herald newspaper that the policy should be eliminated. And if not that, he said, every Cuban migrant picked up at sea should at least have legal representation.
Monday, the Coast Guard repatriated 15 Cubans found standing on an old bridge piling between islands of the Florida Keys. The government ruled the bridge, which is no longer in use, did not count as dry land.
Some information for this report was provided by AP.
voanews.com
By VOA News 11 January 2006
A U.S. Congressman is calling for a review of U.S. policy toward Cuban refugees after 15 Cubans were repatriated Monday.
Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Republican House member from Florida, says he is asking the White House to review the United States' "wet foot, dry foot" policy toward illegal Cuban immigrants. The policy allows Cuban refugees who reach U.S. soil to stay in the United States, but those intercepted at sea are sent back home.
Diaz-Balart told the Miami Herald newspaper that the policy should be eliminated. And if not that, he said, every Cuban migrant picked up at sea should at least have legal representation.
Monday, the Coast Guard repatriated 15 Cubans found standing on an old bridge piling between islands of the Florida Keys. The government ruled the bridge, which is no longer in use, did not count as dry land.
Some information for this report was provided by AP.
voanews.com
