E. Clay Shaw, Jr.: “Mr. Chairman, there is no congressional district in this country that is more impacted by what is going on in Haiti than…”

“Mr. Chairman, there is no congressional district in this country that is more impacted by what is going on in Haiti than my home district along the southeast coast of the State of Florida. We know the pitiful situation that does exist in Haiti and we know the reason that we should go forward and do something to alleviate the problem. Mr. Chairman, we have two suggestions here before us today. One I think they both have in common, they say, let us not repeat a mistake of history that was made many, many years ago when we found American troops going to Haiti and not being able to remove them for decades. I applaud that provision in both of the amendments that are before us. But the problem with the Dellums amendment is that the Dellums amendment would intensify a mistake that the present administration is presently making. Mr. Chairman, in this particular amendment what the gentleman from California advocates is that we look for land base in order to question these people seeking asylum, and where it does speak of seeking a land base in other countries, it does in no way preclude that land base to be here in the United States. We know that once the refugees get into the United States, whether they have any claim to political asylum at all, all they have to say is a few words and they are here. Mr. Chairman, we are already overrun in this country.…”