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Monsignor Bryan Walsh, director of Catholic Charities in Miami, testified at the hearing that some 15,000 Haitians already in the U.S. have been waiting for up to seven years to know whether they can stay as political refugees. So far, he said, only 50 have been granted that status. Actually, Immigration officials estimate that during the same period, perhaps as many as 30,000 Haitians have slipped into south Florida in small boats, although many have not filed formally for admittance.
Most of the Haitian boat people live in northeast Miami's "Little Haiti," working as maids, dishwashers, gas-station attendants and in other unskilled jobs. The U.S. has so far refused to regard them as political refugees, though their reasons for leaving Haiti sound similar to those of the Cuban refugees; both groups cite political persecution and extreme poverty. Carter said he was "greatly concerned" about the Haitians and had ordered federal agencies to "treat the Haitians in the same exact humane manner as we treat Cubans."
Yet Cuba remained the most urgent cause of worry. The State Department ordered 17 of 20 remaining staffers and their dependents out of Havana, at least temporarily, as Castro whipped up anti-American sentiment before staging a mass rally in the streets of Havana on Saturday. While speakers heatedly denounced the U.S., the crowd relished the rhetoric but refrained from attacking the former U.S. embassy building—the last significant symbol of official American representation in Havana.