In 1959, Fidel Castro became the Prime Minister of Cuba, later on declaring himself the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba. This led to a transformation in Cuba creating a socialist republic. Although many people believed Castro would bring change and prosperity to the island, when this change did not occur many people began to flee illegally as a result of Castro placing travel restrictions on the Cuban population. Until recently, Cuban immigrants have been welcomed into the United States as refugees fleeing Castro’s political persecution. This was as a result of the Cuban Adjustment Act passed by congress in 1966, which stated that all Cubans were welcome. However, in 1994 37,000 Cuban’s migrated to Miami, causing President Clinton to find a compromise within this policy. This resulted in the creation of “wet foot/ dry foot” which allowed Cuban immigrants to get American asylum, but if thy were found at sea by the U.S. coast guard, they were sent to Guantanamo bay for a hearing. However, after September 11th, the Bush Administration decided to secure borders more tightly as a result of these attacks. This has created a more difficult attempt for Cuban Immigrants trying to migrate to the U.S. as a result of the U.S. coast guard being stricter on ocean borders. This has led to a debate on whether Cubans should be allowed in freely because of their political situation, or if they should be treated as illegal immigrants when they are still not on U.S. soil.
http://www.cfr.org/publication/16437/
http://www.umich.edu/~ac213/student_projects05/miami/cuban.html
I feel that the topic which you will discuss in this article will be interesting because of differing opinions people have on illegal immigration. My question for you is if you think it is right that America's policy for Cuban immigrants is different than immigrants from Mexico when even though Mexico's government is not a communist regime, there is human suffering throughout the country? Secondly, do you feel that the United States' immigration policies should be different for every country? Are all people being treated equal in this case? I look forward to reading your blog.
ReplyDeleteThis blog is not meant to provide a biased opinion on the subject. I will study the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba and past political relationships. Mexican citizens differ greatly from Cuban citizens, in the manner that their is no need for political asylum. In Mexico there is a large wealthy class and opportunities within that country to come out of the cycle of poverty. In Cuba, citizens do not have this opportunity as a result of the Communist party overlooking all businesses and nationalizing them. Every country is under different circumstances, therefore it should only be fair that immigration policies on that country be modified to its circumstances.
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