US: Cubans Welcome, but Vulnerable Latin Americans Stay Out!
US: Cubans Welcome, but Vulnerable Latin Americans Stay Out!
By: Adriana Maestas
No other group of migrants from Latin America receives the same special treatment from the U.S. government as the Cubans do.
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In the last fiscal year, 43,124 Cubans entered the country according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. From Oct. 1, 2015 through Feb. 24, 2016, an additional 25,805 Cubans have entered. In the past 17 months, 68,930 Cubans have come to the U.S. where they are processed and become eligible for food stamps, Medicaid, and eventually a work permit and legal residence.
Most of the Cuban migrants are coming through the border crossing in Laredo, Texas, where they have come up through Central America. Laredo is now the favored entry point because Cubans can avoid the danger and drama of being caught by the Coast Guard off of the sea in Florida while in a rickety boat. The U.S. government’s “wet-foot, dry-foot” policy allows Cubans who arrive on U.S. soil to be paroled in, while those who are captured on the water are sent back to the island.
No other group of migrants from Latin America receives the same special treatment from the U.S. government as the Cubans do. The generous immigration policy is a product of the Cold War when the U.S. sought to "Americanize" Cubans. The U.S. wanted offer them refuge from political persecution. Over the years, the policy has been revised in response to waves of Cuban migration with “wet-foot, dry-foot” being the latest.
While Cuban migrants are welcomed and processed at the border within an hour or so, refugees from Central America and Mexico are caught, detained, and most likely deported. Yet some in the U.S. continue to justify the preferential immigration policy for Cubans by citing the human rights record of the Cuban government.
According to the Amnesty International 2015/16, The State of the World’s Human Rights Report, in Mexico more than 27,000 people remained missing or disappeared and that human rights defenders and journalists “continued to be threatened, harasses, or killed.” There are also extrajudicial executions and torture in Mexico.
More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/US-Cubans-Welcome-but-Vulnerable-Latin-Americans-Stay-Out-20160321-0012.html
