I’d presume that was a bit lower than 85% if only because, unfortunately, some of the younger native FL-born Cuban-Americans were trending somewhat away from their GOP parents. Dubya’s current (and misguided) policy on those fleeing Cuba (wet foot, dry foot) has obviously eroded support for the GOP amongst them. Although I have become increasingly anti-illegal (especially since July), I tend to give some sympathy to those literally fleeing for their lives from totalitarian regimes (I also have similar sympathy for Haitians, although that’s not quite the same political situation as with Cuba). Mexico doesn’t meet that by any stretch of the imagination.
Of course, pursuant to the federal Cuba Adjustment Act, Cubans that make it to the U.S. are not illegal aliens.
It was rank hypocrisy for Clinton to deem U.S. coastal waters to be the United States for every conceivable purpose, yet not to be the U.S. for purposes of the Cuba Adjustment Act. It is also shameful that President Bush has continued that idiotic policy. If Cubans escaping a Communist tyranny make it to U.S. territorial waters, it is cruel to send them back to Castro where their fate is even worse than it was before.