A steady flow became a torrent as political dissidence and economic discontent spread resulting in a flow of 680,000 persons between 1962 and 1979. (Hughes, 1999, Fall, p. 39).
The Attorney General has discretion to permit any immigrant to remain in the United States through the exercise of his power of parole for "humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit or for reasons deemed strictly in the public interest." Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA), sec. 212(d)(5)(A), (B), 8 U.S.C. sec. 1182(d)(5)A),(B) (1997). The United States Government, which broke diplomatic relations with the Castro regime on January 4, 1961, tried to overthrow and generally assumed a hostile stance toward it and its alliance with the Soviet Union. In 1965 Congress passed amendments to INA which allowed in anyone who could prove they were fleeing political persecution from a communist regime, INA, sec. 203(a)(7, 8 U.S.C. sec. 1153(a)(7) (1965). In fact, according to Sartori (2001, Winter, p. 327), "U.S. policy effectively accepted and integra
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