Bush to Take New Look at Issue of Refugees, Blames Nicaragua
President-elect Bush said Friday that he would take “a hard new look” at U.S. immigration policies, but he blamed the influx of refugees from Central America on what he called tyranny in leftist-run Nicaragua.
Bush, asked at a brief news conference what he planned to do about the flood of refugees into the Miami area, said that the flow of refugees into Florida and his home state of Texas “is causing an overburdening of facilities like schools and hospitals. This is a sorry commentary on what’s happening in Central America and Nicaragua, and we’ve been seeing this for a long, long time.
“When I become President, we’re going to take a hard new look at the immigration policies,” he said, “but there is no easy answer to it.
“The final answer is democracy and freedom in Nicaragua,” he added. “When people are fleeing tyranny, the United States has to be generous. But no one community can suffer an overload without some support.”
When asked what he would do about the refugees already here, Bush replied: “The law takes care of that.”
About 2,000 people, mostly from Nicaragua, have traveled to the Miami area in the last two months. Officials said they expect 100,000 more in the next 18 months.
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