Clinton Pledges Waiver For Central American Immigrants He Says U.S. Is Responsible For Cold War Turmoil That Made Many Flee Homelands

Meeting with the leaders of Central American countries Thursday, President Clinton addressed their concerns over new U.S. immigration laws, pledging to delay enforcement of the provision that most worries them and to press Congress to soften the impact on their nationals living in the United States.

The Central American leaders fear the new law may spark mass deportations of their countrymen who fled during war and unrest in the 1980s, when their region was a late battleground for the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. The president stressed that the estimated 300,000 Central American immigrants who could be subject to deportation under the new law deserve special consideration because of the U.S. role in the turmoil that forced them from their homes.

He promised that there will be no mass deportations and that each case will be dealt with humanely.

“After all, the United States government was heavily involved with a lot of these countries during all this upheaval,” Clinton said during an afternoon news conference with the leaders of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. “It seems to me we ought to be sensitive to the disruptions that were caused during those tough years that we were involved in as a nation.”

Clinton’s visit here marked the first time an American president has participated in a summit of Central American leaders since 1968. In the ornate National Theater as the news conference began, Clinton and each of the Central American leaders signed the Declaration of San Jose, pledging a new partnership between the United States and the region in the areas of trade, environment and migration in order to bolster the Central American countries’ democratic governments and free-market economies.

The president took pains to highlight for Americans the dramatic changes in countries here that largely have not hit newspaper front pages or the network news since coups and guerrilla warfare put them there in the 1980s.

“When the history of our region and our time is written, it will record your courage and your strength in ending four decades of conflict, braving the threat of bombs and bullets to cast ballots, embracing the challenge of economic reform, and opening the door to a new era of partnership among all our nations,” Clinton said during a morning welcoming ceremony in front of the 100-yearold National Theater in downtown San Jose.

The leaders also focused on trade. “Open skies” agreements increasing potential commercial air travel between the United States and the region were signed between the United States and Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Clinton stressed that in his new budget he requested $2 billion for an expansion of the Caribbean Basin Initiative to give the Central American and Caribbean nations preferable tariffs on a handful of additional goods including tuna, leather and textiles. The initiativealready gives the region special status on many other goods.