Confronted with a sudden surge in the number of Haitian boat people, President Clinton says he's trying to decide how to respond but there are limits to what the USA can do.
"There has been a significant increase in Haitian refugees . . . as a result of political repression in Haiti, perhaps intensified by anxiety over tougher sanctions," says Clinton.
Since Friday, Coast Guard cutters patrolling off Haiti have picked up 2,472 Haitians. A baby was born on one cutter. That's more people picked up than during all of 1993.
In the face of the abrupt increase, the Clinton administration, the Pentagon, State Department, and the INS are all pushing the same message: Haitians, stay home.
"The safest and best thing for Haitians to do is to apply (for refugee status) at the in-country processing center," says Clinton. In recent days, the acceptance rate for those applications has increased to 30%, says Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman Russ Bergeron.
The wave of boat people - at least 460 were picked up Tuesday - threatens to swamp Clinton's new $ 10 million processing system in Jamaica, where hundreds more are due today.
"When you get so many in one day, it's unrealistic to say we shouldn't be concerned," says Bergeron. The INS is interviewing Haitians aboard the Navy's Comfort hospital ship in Kingston's harbor.
Barbara Francis, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees - monitoring the Comfort processing - says the high numbers will "severely test" the system.
Coast Guard and Pentagon officials warn that if the flows continue to grow, the cutters could become too crowded to pick up everyone in the water.
"We are not above our capacity at this point," says Pentagon spokeswoman Kathleen deLaski. "(But) as more come out, we don't necessarily see every boat or we can't get to everyone in a timely fashion or we could have some (refugee) boats that are in a very dangerous, precarious situation."
One of the reasons for the sudden increase could be that Haitians know that up to one-third of those reaching the Comfort are being accepted as refugees. So far, 649 people have been interviewed, with 174 accepted as refugees.
They were taken to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where they can apply for entry to the USA.
"The fact that a substantial number can meet the high standard means their cases were so strong and so compelling that even a system clearly biased in favor of denial nonetheless had to accept them," says Lucas Guttentag, head of the American Civil Liberties Union's immigration project.
Of those rejected, about 260 have already been returned to Haiti by the Coast Guard and the rest are expected to be repatriated soon.
Meanwhile, a land-based processing center on Turks and Caicos Islands is to open in mid-July. Other processing center options: the Bahamas and Guantanamo Bay.
