Clinton Policy Will Still Halt Haitians at Sea

President-elect Bill Clinton will announce soon, perhaps as early as today, a plan for dealing with Haitian refugees that is similar to the Bush Administration policy he criticized last summer.

During his campaign, Clinton described as unfair the Bush Administration’s directive for the Coast Guard to intercept Haitian refugees sailing to U.S. shores and forcibly return them to their homeland without hearing their claims for political asylum.

Now, faced with estimates that as many as 200,000 Haitian refugees plan to set out for the United States in hundreds of newly constructed boats soon after his inauguration, Clinton will announce a plan to bar all but legitimate political refugees from entering the United States, sources said Wednesday.

Clinton transition officials believe that such a policy is necessary to halt an exodus that already reportedly has cost the lives of hundreds of Haitians who have drowned when unseaworthy vessels have foundered. Boats are under construction all along the coast of Haiti as thousands of people prepare to risk the 600-mile trip to escape their country’s poverty and violence.

President Bush announced the policy of turning back boat people last May. At the time, more than 30,000 people had attempted the trip over the previous eight months and 12,000 were housed in crowded conditions at a refugee center at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The flow of refugees fell markedly as a result of the policy. About 5,000 Haitians have been returned to the island in the last eight months.

After Bush announced his policy of barring all but legitimate asylum seekers, Clinton said that it “must not stand.” If elected President, he said: “I would--in the absence of clear and compelling evidence that they weren’t political refugees--give them temporary asylum until we restored the elected government of Haiti.”

Under the new Clinton plan, U.S. vessels would continue to halt Haitians before they enter the United States and return them to Haiti or other Caribbean locations to weigh their asylum claims. Thus far, however, Caribbean nations have not agreed to house refugees while their claims are reviewed by U.S. authorities.

The Clinton team plans to expand the application processing effort to make it easier and safer for Haitians to apply for asylum in their country. Under the plan, a number of sites would be opened in Haiti where citizens could go with confidence that they would not be spotted by the island’s military personnel and subjected to reprisals.

The Clinton policy would remain in effect while the United States continues to negotiate to restore to power Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically elected president.

That effort, which the Bush Administration has been pursuing since Aristide was forced out of the country 16 months ago, gained new life Wednesday as U.S. diplomats and the Organization of American States prepared to deliver a letter signed by Aristide, who now lives in exile in Washington, D.C., to the military rulers in Haiti. The letter details an agreement under which Aristide would share power with the military leaders.

Similar diplomatic efforts have failed in the past. But officials at an OAS meeting in Washington said Wednesday that there are reasons for greater optimism this time.

Aristide has been closely involved in the discussions, and U.S. officials hope that he will be a strong supporter of the final agreement. Still, some details of this power-sharing arrangement remain to be worked out and the timetable for the country’s return to democracy remains unclear.

Clinton’s new immigration policy is expected to be completed by the end of the week, although some fine points remained unsettled Wednesday. Transition officials were rushing to announce the policy even before the inauguration to head off a further influx.

Florida state officials, including Gov. Lawton Chiles, have been urging Clinton to take a firm stand, fearing that their state--hard hit by a hurricane, the recession and earlier immigration--could ill afford further strain on resources.

A dozen Republican senators have written to Clinton, arguing that prompt action is needed to prevent more deaths.

Nonetheless, the policy is expected to be controversial with Haitian advocates, including some members of Congress, who have argued that it is unfair to exclude Haitians when Cubans are entitled to automatic asylum.

Times staff writer Ashley Dunn in Los Angeles contributed to this story.