CUBA . . . THE WELCOME'S WORN OUT

President Clinton reversed the lenient U.S. policy on refugees from Cuba, saying potential immigrants would be intercepted at sea and taken to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay. Ever since the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, the U.S. has winked at the Communist island's deserters, routinely turning them over to friends or relatives on the day of arrival. Now, the president said at a special news conference, those who make it to U.S. shores "will be apprehended and treated like others," subject to standard reviews for claims of political asylum. Clinton insisted that Cuban emigres in Miami and elsewhere supported his effort to stanch the flow of Cuban dissidents, which he called "a cold-blooded attempt to maintain the Castro grip on Cuba."QUID PRO QUO? Clinton may in fact get Cuban emigres' backing, but not for free. TIME Miami Bureau Chief Cathy Booth has learned that Jorge Mascanosa, head of the Cuban-American National Foundation, the most potent voice of Cuban exiles, is flying to the White House this evening to meet with Clinton -- not to protest today's policy shift, but to get something for it. Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles is tagging along as mediator. "If (Cuban-Americans) are going to take this bitter pill of having refugees detained, then they want harsher measures against Castro to hasten his departure," Booth says. She says those could include a naval blockade of Cuba and decreases in charter flights and currency transactions.