Political Quotes

“I want to talk about another group of about 10,000. That is a group of Haitians. There are many more than 10,000 Haitians who have come to the United States in the last decade, decade and a half, fleeing first the dictatorship of the Duvaliers, and then the military dictatorship that succeeded the Duvaliers. Most of those Haitians came by boat and most had no documentation. They had no papers of any type when they came into the country. Under the immigration law we passed in 1998, subject to one additional complexity--which I will talk about at another time--which we are trying to get resolved with this legislation, they will be entitled to make their case for legal residence in the United States. I think at this point it is important we indicate that in virtually every instance we are talking about, we are not talking about granting a legal status and, certainly, not granting citizenship. What we are talking about is giving people a chance to apply, and that their application will be accepted and given appropriate due process and consideration.”