Hypocritical U.S. immigration policy

Congressional orators have said a lot about immigration laws lately. Lofty terms like “fairness” are used. Undocu mented U.S. workers are scolded for “jumping ahead in the line.”

Indeed, nothing cuts through these well-crafted distortions more quickly than examining the murderous “Cuban Adjustment Act” (CAA).

While Congress threatens to declare undocumented workers felons, this special 40-year-old U.S. law actually rewards irregular emigration from Cuba and only Cuba. It is commonly called a “wet foot/dry foot” policy. The only requirement is to be Cuban and reach land. Such an immigrant is eligible to receive a permanent resident “green card” status in just one year — no need to go through a regular port of entry, either. The U.S. government not only uses the carrot of immediate legal status and benefits to lure people to sea, but the stick of blocked or delayed visa applications to cut off legal avenues.

In new travel ban rules, the U.S. now arrogantly tells Cuban Americans which relatives can be considered family members! Legal visits, even to spouses or parents, are limited to once every three years —no exceptions—a measure that increases personal pressures.

The most widely-known tragic result of the CAA is that of young Elian Gonzalez’ mother, who perished with others at sea. Two recent events on April 5, one in Cuba and one in Florida, are still unfolding, although not covered extensively in the for-profit media.

Off the coast of Pinar del Rio, Cuban border guard troops intercepted a speed boat attempting to pick up 39 people and smuggle them illegally to the United States. Seven were children ranging in age from 23 months to 14 years old. All waited for nearly two days in a mosquito-infested swamp without food and fresh water. Two children, ages 3 and 11, were rushed to the hospital suffering from dehydration. According to Periodico26.cu, one of the human traffickers joined the crew to pay off a $20,000 debt owed for transporting his wife and son to Mexico, where they are still in the hands of a criminal gang. He reported the U.S. Interests Section in Havana denied visas for his family even though he had been a resident of the U.S. since 1980.

Another example of the CAA in action came on April 5 when, according the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a fishing boat filled with 43 Haitians, a Jamaican and a Cuban landed in Broward County, Florida. Forty-four human beings face racist deportation—the Haitians to a world-recognized desperate situation, especially in the bloody U.S./UN occupation following the coup-napping of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. One, the Cuban, will be allowed to stay. (www.sun-sentinel.com)

A new development is the increase in organized-for-profit illegal Cuban emigration via Mexico. The Mexican paper, Por Esto, quoted in Granma Inter national digital, reports the scurrilous $200 million business is sponsored by the notorious Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF). CANF, based in Miami, Florida, directs terrorist actions against Cuba. One of their cohorts, admitted terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, entered the United States via this route. Only when he brazenly held press conferences in Miami did the U.S. government take him into custody. Carriles is currently detained on immigration charges in El Paso, Texas, trying to avoid an extradition request from Venezuela. He is wanted to stand trial for helping to plan in Venezuela the mid-air bombing of Cubana airline 455 that killed 73 people on Oct. 6, 1976. The Cuban Five, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González, have been unjustly imprisoned in the U.S. since 1998 for monitoring such Miami-based terrorist plots against their homeland.

A truly fair U.S. immigration policy must end the Cuban Adjustment Act as well as grant full rights to all immigrant workers.