From: Ribaud <ribaud@f360.n101.z1.fidonet.org>
From: Nelson Valdes SOCIOLOGY <nvaldes@unm.edu>
TALLAHASSEE, Fla -- Florida became the first state to get money from the U.S. government's immigration emergency fund Friday, receiving $18 million for resettling thousands of Cuban immigrants flown to the state from refugee camps at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.
Gov. Lawton Chiles, who has frequently said the federal government should help states bear the cost of immigration, said the money would help keep the state from bearing the cost of national immigration policy.
On May 2, Washington announced it would admit to the United States some 21,000 Cubans living in tent cities at Guantanamo since they were intercepted at sea trying to reach Florida last summer.
The 21,000 would join about 25,000 other Cuban boat people who have reached Florida either directly or via Guantanamo since the beginning of 1994.
Florida said it would use the money, in addition to $4 million in Health and Human Services Department refugee assistance funding, to provide arrivals from Guantanamo with employment assistance, day care and English-language training.
Chiles declared an immigration emergency in Florida a year ago during a mass exodus of tens of thousands of Cubans trying to reach Florida by sea.
Ribaud