Fear Stops Cuba Refugees From Seeking Permanent Residency

Fear of being sent back to Cuba has kept more than half of Florida’s estimated 100,000 boatlift refugees from registering for permanent U.S. residency, despite government assurances that they will not be deported, federal immigration officials said Sunday.

“I don’t understand why people who wanted residency so badly are not doing anything,” Mariano Faget Jr., a program director for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Miami, said. “It must be that they just don’t trust us.”

About 125,000 Cubans arrived during the 1980 boatlift from Mariel in Cuba, most of them fleeing Fidel Castro’s communist regime and eager to set up new roots in the United States.

Fates Were in Limbo

Their fates were in limbo until the end of 1984, when the U.S. government re-enacted the dormant Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, allowing those who came to the United States to escape Castro to become legal residents--the first step toward gaining U.S. citizenship.

The period for registering, which consists mainly of reporting a refugee’s current address to the INS, began Dec. 3 and ends Jan. 31.

During the first week of the program, hundreds of persons flocked to local volunteer agencies that registered the refugees in southern Florida, where most have since settled.

The INS said it expects a steady flow of applicants in the weeks ahead. But at the end of last week, officials said that they had received only 45,400 Alien-Address Report Cards.

‘People Are Afraid’

The INS said registration for permanent residency fell off after Dec. 14, when the U.S. and Cuban governments signed an agreement under which Cuba agreed to take back 2,746 criminals who arrived from Mariel and were deemed inadmissible by U.S. authorities.

“People are afraid,” said Cuban radio newsman Tomas Regalado, who said he will act as host of an informational program on the issue this week.

Perry Rivkind, INS district director in Miami, earlier this month distributed a message of reassurance through radio stations in Miami’s Little Havana district.

“People have nothing to fear. This government is not doing anything that is underhanded,” he said.

But while the number of persons registering reportedly has increased slightly since the radio messages were broadcast, many refugees still are hesitant.