The Nation : Florida Officials Pledge Immigrant Aid

Florida lawmakers met with hundreds of Nicaraguan immigrants living at a stadium in Miami to pledge support, but they warned that funds to help them find jobs and homes “don’t come easily.” Newly elected Republicans Sen. Connie Mack and Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. and Mayor Xavier Suarez visited the Bobby Maduro Miami Stadium to examine the problems facing the growing number of Nicaraguan arrivals. A total of 263 Nicaraguans are living at the stadium. Shaw vowed to help “so that Miami won’t have to take on alone the financial burden of these new refugee arrivals.” Miami officials have said that the latest wave of Nicaraguans will overburden schools and hospitals. The Central Americans began arriving from South Texas last week, after a federal judge in Texas ruled that the federal government could not keep them there while their applications for political asylum were being processed.