Florida’s Plea for Urgent Help With Cubans Rebuffed : Refugees: The White House begins a major review of actions it could take. Administration later says governor’s request for Navy ships is being considered.

The Cuban refugee issue exploded onto the domestic political scene Thursday as the White House rebuffed an urgent plea by Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles to declare an emergency and the Administration began a major review to consider new options.

Chiles made his appeal in a morning press conference, contending that “there is no question that a true emergency exists” and calling on President Clinton to send Navy ships and more federal dollars to help cope with the influx.

Chiles’ request received a frosty reception initially, first from Atty. Gen. Janet Reno and later from White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, who said bluntly: “We’ve been able to handle the surge in Cuban migrants in an orderly fashion and we’ll continue to do that.”

A few hours later, however, leading Administration officials said the White House is considering Chiles’ request seriously, and Clinton called the Florida governor to ask for his suggestions on how to deal with the refugee influx.

At the same time, officials of refugee aid groups in Miami expressed skepticism about Chiles’ assessment. Ken Tota, coordinator of the U.S. Catholic Conference’s resettlement effort here, said that the influx “looks like a manageable situation at this point” and that aid groups “have the capacity to expand” if necessary.

The developments came as the number of Cubans crossing the Florida Straits on small boats or rafts continued to increase, raising fears that the influx could escalate into a repeat of the 1980 Mariel boat lift, which sent 125,000 Cubans to U.S. shores over a five-month period.

Coast Guard officials said their vessels picked up 369 Cubans in the straits Thursday, after a record-breaking 537 Wednesday. Those figures are up from a rate of about 300 refugees a day last weekend.

Clinton’s top national security policy-makers called an emergency meeting to review their options, with formal recommendations expected to go to the President today or Saturday.

Officials said the options range from increasing the number of Coast Guard vessels assigned to pick up Cubans to possibly sending some of the refugees to temporary haven camps in other countries, as has been done with Haitian refugees.

Administration strategists said a series of new measures to deal with the situation could be announced as early as this weekend. Sending refugees to third-country havens could prove difficult, however, since Cubans are guaranteed entry into the United States under current law.

In a sign that the Administration expects the number of refugees to grow in coming days, military authorities were preparing to expand facilities in South Florida in accordance with an emergency plan to handle the influx.

Although the plan--which calls for tent cities to be set up as screening centers at Homestead and Key West--is supposed to take effect only after the inflow reaches 1,000 refugees a day, officials said the order to start construction already has gone out.

In addition, officials said the Administration is planning to set up relocation camps at three dozen sites across the United States to process Cubans and send them to other cities.

In Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood Thursday evening, refugees by the busload arrived from Key West at two separate facilities, where they were put in contact with family members and helped with settlement problems. Cuban Americans gathered outside one of the centers, curious to see if loved ones were among the new arrivals.

Carmin Baas, 51, burst into tears of joy when she spotted a nephew and niece through the bus windows. “I feel so happy,” she said. “At last they are out of Cuba and that’s the best thing. They could have died there with no food.”

Baas had left Cuba 15 years earlier with her three children and husband and had worried ever since about relatives left behind.

Some refugees who arrived were dirty from their treacherous voyage across the Florida Straits. The crowd cheered each time a cluster of refugees emerged from the center.

Gilberto Blanco, a topographer, arrived on a 23-foot motorboat Thursday morning with 20 family members. “We left five houses empty in Havana,” he said. The last month had been particularly difficult because food was scarce and Blanco dropped from a trim 140 to 112 pounds.

But food, he said, is not the reason he left. “The most difficult thing in Cuba is the way the government obstructs the lives of the people. No one can say what they want to say. You can’t express your feelings or you will go immediately to jail.”

U.S. officials said Cuban President Fidel Castro appears to have made it clear that he no longer will try to prevent disgruntled Cubans from fleeing to the United States--a situation that has led to lines at docks in Mariel, where Cubans are said to be waiting for transportation to Florida.

The Administration is trying desperately to stave off another Mariel boat lift like the one that occurred in 1980, when 125,000 Cuban refugees sailed to U.S. shores. Many later were identified by authorities as having criminal records in Cuba.

To discourage further increases in the number of small-boat and raft refugees, the White House is expected to announce a plan soon to bolster the capability of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana--which functions as a U.S. Embassy--to process traditional visa applications.

U.S. authorities said one reason for the large number of people attempting to cross the straits is that U.S. law virtually guarantees resident status and eventual citizenship to any Cuban landing on U.S. soil.

In the past, Cuba has sought to impede any of its citizens who try to obtain traditional visas, both by harassing them and refusing them exit permits. But Castro more recently has criticized the United States for maintaining only token facilities to process visa applications in Havana.

Under President Ronald Reagan, the United States agreed to grant visas to as many as 20,000 Cuban immigrants a year, but officials said only about 4,000 were granted in 1993, partly because of the obstacles that the Castro regime has imposed.

So far this year, about 6,872 Cubans have arrived in the United States by sea--up from 3,656 in 1993. Many in recent days have come by homemade boats and even inner tubes--a move that Coast Guard officials warn is dangerous in the 90 miles of open sea between Cuba and Florida.

U.S. officials have said the main difference between the 1980 boat lift and today’s situation is that this time Cuban Americans who are living in South Florida are not taking their boats to pick up relatives in Cuba--a pattern that sent refugee totals soaring in 1980.

As a result, the Administration has concentrated the bulk of its efforts so far on persuading Cuban Americans to stay home rather than set sail for Cuban waters. So far, it has been reasonably successful, but some officials worry that could change overnight.

In his press conference Thursday, Chiles declared that the large influx of Cubans was creating “an emergency situation for services and assistance,” and he called on Clinton to invoke a federal contingency plan to provide additional help for the state.

“The emergency is the direct responsibility of the federal government,” he said pointedly. He called out the Florida National Guard, Marine Patrol, state law enforcement department and other state agencies to help.

Chiles also issued a warning to Cubans, pleading with them not to “risk your lives on a very dangerous journey” to the United States. “The Castro government is clearly weakening and the day of freedom is near in Cuba,” he said.

But Reno--and later Myers at the White House--rejected Chiles’ contention that the situation is getting out of hand. “We have been able to manage the increased flow . . . in an orderly way,” Reno told a news conference, “and without disruption to the community.”

White House officials, however, said later that, despite Myers’ rejoinder, the Administration had not flatly rejected Chiles’ request but was merely considering it while policy-makers are reviewing the situation.

The White House officials clearly were piqued at the stridence of Chiles’ appeal, particularly since he is a Democrat in a state whose electoral votes Clinton will want if he decides to run for reelection. The President did not carry Florida in 1992.

“I’m not sure what the governor’s concerns are,” Tota, of the U.S. Catholic Conference, said in an interview. “I think there’s a panic that this thing will keep growing and growing and growing.” He said Chiles’ remarks were “in reaction to Florida’s emotional response to refugees.”

Shogren and researcher Edith Stanley reported from Miami and Pine reported from Washington.