Closed-Door Policy

President Bush may have unwittingly coined himself a new campaign slogan: "Read my lips. No new Haitians." That was the message he sent last week as he changed policy on the boat people who have been fleeing the island nation in droves since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown last September. From now on, the Coast Guard will force Haitian refugees it finds on the high seas to return home; if they want political asylum in the U.S., they can go apply at the embassy. This came less than a week after Bush declared that the boat people who had previously been rescued and taken to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, would be left to fend for themselves unless they were in imminent danger of sinking. The Administration also announced that the refugee camp at Guantanamo, where 11,000 Haitians remain, will be shut down. Those who aren't granted asylum in the U.S. will be sent back as well.

The President has insisted all along that many of the Haitian refugees are fleeing economic conditions, not political oppression, yet he has labeled the military dictatorship in power there an "illegal regime," and has imposed an embargo on any ship that has docked in Haiti. Political violence is increasing in Port-au-Prince. The Administration, acknowledging that Haitians seen making proper requests for asylum at the embassy may be in danger, announced that it will send officials out into the countryside to take applications. A partial list of those condemning U.S. refugee policy: the Anti-Defamation League, the N.A.A.C.P. and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. (See related story on page 43.)