Bill Clinton: “Before, when they were tried, the circumstances were somewhat different. First of all, let me answer the question about…”

“Before, when they were tried, the circumstances were somewhat different. First of all, let me answer the question about why we would undertake to change the policy, even though there is clearly some logistical challenge involved in doing so. I ordered the review of this policy 6 weeks ago when we began first to get intelligence reports and then clear news reports that there was increasing violence against citizens of Haiti who did not agree with the policies of the military regime--and indeed, some of them seem to not be political at all--of people not only being killed but being mutilated. It seems to me reasonable to assume that some of the people who are fleeing by boat are in that group of people who also are fearful of their lives. And the way the boat return has worked so far is that we take the people back, let them off at the dock at Port-au-Prince. They are then--by and large, they have been free to go to the in-country processing. But they are subject to the authority of the Haitian police at that moment. And I simply think that the risks of that cannot be justified, given the increased level of political violence in the country. Therefore, I think we have to change the policy. Now, why do I think it will work? First, we've studied what happened before when the policy of inspection of people at sea occurred, and we have determined that two things ought to be done. First, we ought to look for a third-country processing center. And second, if we do it at sea, we ought not to do it on the Coast Guard cutters, which can be quickly overrun in their capacity, but to do it on bigger ships. We believe if--given a little time to organize this logistically, we can handle it. Also, it will be clear that we are not changing our policy, which is the law of the United States with regard to economic refugees. People who seek to come to the United States for economic reasons only, are not eligible for this kind of status. So we will do these reviews. We think we can do them fairly quickly, in a matter of a few days, and then return those who should be returned and take those who should be taken into the United States. Ron [Ron Fournier, Associated Press].”