Miami Area Asks for Help in Absorbing Nicaraguans

An influx of Nicaraguans fleeing war and poverty in their homeland is straining social services, hospitals and schools in South Florida, Dade County officials said.

Economic conditions in the Central American nation are growing worse and U.S. aid to rebel forces has been curtailed, so the future looks bleak for many Nicaraguans. The Miami area, which already has a large Latino population, is a natural destination.

As many as 300 Nicaraguans a week have been arriving in recent months, said Perry Rivkind of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service here.

Most of about 125,000 Cubans who came to Florida in the Mariel “boat lift” of 1980 settled in Dade County, along with tens of thousands of Haitians. That wave of immigration caused severe social problems. Officials are concerned that a similar situation could develop with the Nicaraguans.

“It’s going to be another Mariel,” said Rosario Kennedy, Miami’s vice mayor. “We’ve got to do something.”

Most of the Nicaraguans have no legal status in the United States, so county and state officials cannot obtain the federal aid that helped the county cope with the Cubans and Haitians.

“Call them entrants, call them refugees, call them whatever you want,” but the federal government must do something, said Bobby Bernal, county aide for refugee affairs. “Because they will continue to come.”

The officials say that few of the estimated 75,000 to 100,000 Nicaraguans in the county were eligible for the amnesty offered earlier this year to undocumented immigrants who arrived before 1982. The INS has granted asylum to about 5,000 of the 50,000 Nicaraguans who have requested political refugee status.

The INS is issuing work permits to asylum applicants, and the Reagan Administration has decided not to deport non-criminal Nicaraguans, but they do not qualify for aid under federal programs such as food stamps or job training.

In the last three months, more Nicaraguan children have entered schools here than at any time since the Sandinista revolution in 1979, Ralph Robinett, executive director of the Dade school system’s bilingual and foreign education, said.

During the summer, 1,653 Nicaraguans registered as students, and they now number more than 10,000 in Dade schools. Many of them are poorly educated and need extra help.

“They need to have a lot of remedial help,” Robinett said. The schools’ bilingual program isn’t geared to deal with remedial needs but instead assumes students are fluent in Spanish.

Private efforts are being overburdened. The Nicaraguan Assistance Center is falling behind in its expenses and help from charities is down, officials say.

“We do what we can,” said the Rev. Francisco Santana, whose parish in suburban Sweetwater is a first stop for many Nicaraguans. “But I don’t know how long we can stand it. Christianity says we can’t turn them away, but the numbers are such that we can’t help them all.”