Haitian and Cuban Refugees

Saul Landau

Over the last two months, smugglers routinely drop Haitians and Cubans off the South Florida coast. US authorities arrest these presumably "illegal" immigrants and haul them off to Krome detention center. All the Haitians then await hearings for deportation. But some of the Cubans, at the same center, will receive processing to get them parolee status -- the rapid route to a green card and permanent residence.

Both Cubans and Haitians fled islands engulfed in poverty and lack of opportunity. But one can't compare the plight of Haitian to those on the island only 30 miles to the West. Cubans continue to enjoy free health care, education and state subsidies for some of their food and other needs. Haitians, living under a supposedly free-market regime and a "democratic" government remain desperately poor. Thei "free" system offers them no cushions for hard times.

Yet, US politics demands that the Cubans, fleeing for economic reasons, receive political heroes' treatment for getting themselves smuggled into the United States; Haitians should go back where they belong. Both Alfred E. Newman and the Cigar Store Indian bow to the demands of the right wing anti-Castro lobby in hopes of acquiring last minute money and votes. The Clinton Administration acquiesces in the fiction that Cubans are special refugees, fleeing from communism - as long as they prove clever enough to elude the Coast Guard, which is supposed to repatriate them, and put a foot on US soil.

This wet foot-dry foot wrinkle stems from the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, which encouraged Cubans to risk their lives to defect. If they made it to the US beach, we would welcome them and offer them preferred treatment. In the Cold War days, Cubans who wanted to emigrate to the United States had little chance of doing so legally. Then in the early 90s, as Cuba's economy spiraled downward, "too many" Cubans came here in rafts. As xenophobia swept the United States undergoing the effects of recession, Florida officials, fearful of the redneck reaction, complained to Clinton. So, the United States, which had committed itself to the destruction of the Castro government, signed the 1995 Migration Accords with Cuba, in order to discourage "undesirable" Cubans from embarking illegally in rafts.

This accord, of course, strengthened the legitimacy of the Castro government. And, it temporarily stopped the rafters' tsunami. But Clinton didn't have the courage to confront the anti-Castro lobby and push Congress to overturn the 1966 Act. So, the crisis had ended, but the problem remained. The State Department would offer up to 20,000 visas a year to desirable Cubans, those without criminal records or histories of mental illness; those with good education and affluent families already living in the United States. However, because the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act remained as law, "unqualified" Cubans pay smugglers up to $10 thousand who try to elude the Coast Guard and get their passengers within swimming distance of a US beach. Needless to say, not all of those whose toes touch US sand would have qualified for legal visas.

Last month a group of Cubans stole a crop duster and crashed the plane into the ocean as soon as they spotted a ship which they assumed would pick them up. And, the pirates qualified under the dry foot rule although they crashed in the ocean. Get it? It's election time.

Big deal that such official approval of air piracy might set a bad Precedent. As Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiasson suggests, US immigration has in effect imposed a new rule: the black foot-white foot formula, which has become superimposed on the wet foot dry foot ploy. Haitians/black, send 'em back. Cubans white / they're alright. To hell with consistency! Winning elections in the world's greatest empire has its own logic. There might not be justice or poetry in such policies, but the next imperial leader will do almost anything to get a buck or a vote from South Florida.