As relations with Cuba slowly and steadily improved, a foreign policy that enacted a migration intervention to begin a 7-year program of passages called the Mariel boatlift, which was perceived to 'aid Cuba at ridding itself of undesirables', was met with little public support. After stages of these initial trips, Vice President Walter Mondale of the Carter administration served to justify this political position by stating there "is no better proof of the failure of Castro's revolution than the dramatic exodus which is currently taking place." There was a growing stigma that surrounded "marielitos" as they were not viewed as romantically as the initial exiles. Even though President Jimmy Carter welcomed migrants in with opened arms, it was not well received, as the image of a "criminal" grew rampant among the public eye, even though it were only about 10-20% of them. Castro had called these people the "escoria" ("scum") of his country: the "homosexuals, drug addicts, and gambling addicts".