Porter Goss: “our Caribbean immigration policy is a three-sided disaster. It is a disaster for Floridians, actually for all Americans…”

“our Caribbean immigration policy is a three-sided disaster. It is a disaster for Floridians, actually for all Americans, for Cubans, and for Haitians. When the Federal Government fails to control our borders or to enforce our immigration laws, the financial responsibility for that inevitably falls to the States. Florida in fact has borne the brunt of the combined impact of the last 2 years of ineffective Caribbean policymaking and inability to enforce laws designed to create a fair and orderly asylum process which we all want. We are talking here about hundreds of millions of dollars of unfair costs. Floridians recently applauded Senator Bob Graham for his amendments to the unfunded mandates bill in the other body requiring that the Federal Government must acknowledge the cost of its failed immigration policy. No more ducking and hiding on this. The Clinton White House has been unable to address the problems in our failed national immigration program. Perhaps it is because they are unwilling, perhaps because they do not know how. They keep repeating pledges to fix what is broken, but it is not happening. In fact, the administration is headed in exactly the wrong direction in one important area. By negotiating and striking deals with Fidel Castro, the Clinton team is playing into the hands of what we know to be a brutal dictator who stands at the core of one of the most serious immigration enigmas we have.”