Bob Menendez: “I rise today to express condemnation of the secret meetings that were held between the Department of State and the…”

“I rise today to express condemnation of the secret meetings that were held between the Department of State and the Castro dictatorship, and specifically between Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Peter Tarnoff and Communist Cuban official Ricardo Alarcon, which resulted today, a dark day in American history, in 18 Cuban refugees forcibly being repatriated to the Castro dictatorship. Mr. Speaker, I want the Committee on International Relations, of which I am a member, to hold hearings and receive a full accounting of who specifically authorized such a process, and all details relevant to that process. During March I was assured by senior administration officials that no other options prior to those that had been publicly debated and discussed had been presented to the administration. And we had the head of the Cuban desk appear in my district talking to people from within the community, and yet, despite all of those statements made in public and private, this type of clandestine action occurred, and it belies private and public assurances made to me and others and therefore betrays trust.”