NEW YORK - The United States told Cuba Thursday it is prepared to speed up admission to the USA of nearly 28,000 immigrants to turn Cuba's massive exodus into a safe, orderly immigration.
The first day of talks on the flow of Cubans by sea across the Florida Straits reached no agreements but ended on a somewhat upbeat note.
"The talks represented a useful exploration of the migration issues," said U.S. delegation spokesman David Johnson. "We both had a good opportunity to review our concerns and discuss ways in which to address these issues."
He said the Clinton administration "remains very concerned about the outflow of people from Cuba, which is proceeding in a dangerous and disorderly manner."
Others familiar with the talks said the U.S. delegation made a point of its intention to grant "humanitarian parole" to would-be immigrants not otherwise eligible for visas.
That's controversial.
Opponents of increased immigration and advocates for Haitian refugees question whether the plan would be legal and whether it would work.
And they call it unfair, saying it grants special treatment for Cubans while ignoring others, such as Haitians, also poor and persecuted.
"Preferential treatment for Cubans has been a political reality for a long time, but that doesn't make it right," says Lucas Guttentag of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Reports from Cuba indicate that efforts at dissuading refugees from setting sail have failed so far, and many in Cuba are worried the talks may end their only chance to leave.
More than 21,300 Cubans left the island in August, the highest monthly figure since the 1980 Mariel boatlift.
Another 1,484 were picked up at sea Thursday.
As talks opened at the U.S. mission to the United Nations here, chief U.S. negotiator Michael Skol deplored the "chaotic, dangerous and unsafe" exodus of U.S.-bound Cubans.
"We want to end that. We want to replace it with the rule of law . . . and a firm system of legal, safe and orderly migration," said Skol, No. 2 official in the State Department's Latin American policy bureau.
Johnson said negotiators also discussed U.S. law enforcement measures and the return of Cuban criminals now in U.S. jails. Some of the latter arrived in the 1980 boatlift.
Skol said there are no plans to discuss the 33-year-old U.S. economic blockade of Cuba.
Former Cuban Foreign Minister Ricardo Alarcon, chief of the Cuban delegation, said Thursday night he repeatedly brought up the U.S. embargo against the Castro regime.
Interviewed on CNN, he accused the United States of continued "hostility" toward Cuba and dismissed as "arrogant and undemocratic" the U.S. policy of urging Cuba to move toward democracy and a more open system.
Talks continue today at the Cuban mission.
Cuban rescues on rise again
Cubans rescued by the Coast Guard in the past two weeks:
