Boats, Borders, and Bases by Loyd Jenna M. Mountz Alison

Author:Loyd, Jenna M.,Mountz, Alison
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780520962965
Publisher: University of California Press

OPERATION SEA SIGNAL AND THE CREATION OF OFFSHORE “SAFE HAVENS”

U.S. politicians pressed the Clinton administration to escalate pressure on the military government of Haiti. Officials in Florida emphasized how restoring stability in Haiti was needed to slow migration. Governor Lawton Chiles wrote to Attorney General Janet Reno in early December 1993, expressing concerns about the state’s ability to care for “would-be-refugees,” particularly following Hurricane Andrew.10 He noted that the existing “blockade appears to be discouraging Haitians from leaving Haiti,” but that “many of the 25,000 to 40,000 Haitians who have taken up residence in the Bahamas are now seeking entry into the U.S. through Florida.”11 Chiles also had written to Secretary of State Warren Christopher, urging him to consider discussion of the ongoing “protection” of Haitians with Bahamian officials. Congressperson Porter Goss (R-Florida) offered his own “safe haven” proposal of “immediately relocating President Aristide by helping him establish a secure base on Haitian soil,” by which he was referring to the Haitian island of Île de la Gonâve.12 Goss contended that the appeal of his proposal was that Aristide’s presence would offer a “psychological boost for the vast majority of the populace who supported him and ‘demagnetizes’ Florida as the destination of last resort for despairing Haitians.”13

In May 1994, National Security Council (NSC) deputies met in the situation room for one hour to discuss how the administration could increase pressure on the Haitian military. According to a declassified document, the State Department would work to push its perspective at the U.N. Security Council, and a series of financial and travel sanctions would be planned.14 As with Florida officials, migration was a major item of concern on the NSC’s agenda. The NSC decided to pursue a two-pronged plan of establishing a Migrant Processing Center (MPC) and third-country resettlement arrangements for Haitian refugees. The council created a priority list of sites for locating the MPC: 1) “ashore (in the Dominican Republic, Turks and Caicos, or Jamacia [sic]”; 2) “at a dock in these locations”; or 3) “at sea (although there are logistical problems that the Haiti Migrant Task Force might examine).”15 In this archipelago of sites that they envisioned, the Department of Defense (DOD) would be the “‘landlord’ for the MPC and will contract with a commercial cruise ship immediately.”16 The INS would be charged with processing and the Coast Guard with transporting migrants. Efforts to establish MPC sites and agreements with resettlement countries would be pursued diplomatically.

The National Security Council’s plans proved reminiscent of federal, interagency responses to earlier Haitian and Cuban migrations. As we have recounted in previous chapters, the first of these was the Mass Immigration Emergency Plan from 1983. The plan, updated in 1993 with the name Operation Distant Shore, provided for interagency collaboration and allocated a portion of funds to states in the case of an immigration emergency.17 The second was Operation Sea Signal, which the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff began planning immediately after the 1992 presidential elections. Operation Sea Signal was a joint military operation between the U.

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