Immigration debate misses big exception
By RHONDA B. GRAHAM
03/30/2006

An elephant-sized issue is being avoided amid the rallies and emotional debates about illegal immigration currently preoccupying Americans.

If you're Mexican, you take your chances and cross through the deadly desert of the 2,000-mile border separating your country from the United States. If you're from Haiti, your best hope is that the Coast Guard gets so absorbed in processing other refugees that you can escape before the rifles come out and they start target practicing on your shabby dinghy.

But, if you're from Cuba and can get your foot on American soil, your citizenship is virtually instantaneous.

This discriminatory policy goes back to the 1960s when Fidel Castro's communist rise to power was an embarrassing and threatening affront to the American way of life. The 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act gave legal residency to hundreds of thousands of mostly upper-class and educated Cubans who fled the land and power grab of Castro's regime. In 1980 Castro willingly shipped over more. Most were criminals, unskilled workers or mentally ill. Fearing the kind of crush that now undergirds the arguments of immigration opponents, the Clinton Administration came up with the current "wet foot/dry foot" policy after thousands of Cubans begin arriving on crude rafts, boats and inner tubes in the 1990s. More than 37,000 Cubans were rescued from the Atlantic Ocean. A 1994 policy only turns back those who couldn't make it to dry land.

Since last week more than half a million illegal immigrants and supporters demonstrated against a U.S. House bill that sets severe restrictions on access to citizenship and harsh penalties for employers, clergy and even doctors who offer assistance to illegal immigrants.

Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, Phoenix and Milwaukee saw flag-waving throngs from most Latin American countries, but in southern Florida, where the Cuban community predominates, protests were sparse. An immigration activist told a local newspaper he was surprised that only about 500 protesters gathered outside Miami's federal immigration headquarters last Thursday. Nearly all were Haitians.

Local and national Latinos privately acknowledge the awe that Cubans. They see how a citizenship guarantee helps the social and political influence of a culture to gain dominance. From the California farm worker to the Colorado firefighter and New Mexico roofer, you hear the admiration for Cuban-American's ability to pull off what other countries have been unable to provide.

But there is also a silent confusion and some even say resentment at such privilege. Non-Cubans are surviving among the shadowy communities of illegal work forces. This reality makes avoiding deportation a priority over picking a fight about the favoritism your cultural brothers and sisters enjoy.

Despite the legislative rancor, it's clear that a new immigration law will be fashioned before the mid-term elections. The business community will likely get its way on guest worker permits, while hardliners will get some secure-border-measure for the Minuteman militia to test. Driver's licenses and English-language requirements seem possible.

Still, it will be a serious mistake for our political leaders to ignore the special status that a small percentage of the Latino population enjoys.

Such is the result of the "dry feet/wet feet" policy, rooted in the outdated 1966 act. It goes against what we tell fleeing masses about American democracy. At best it insures the full benefit of citizenship to a desperate few. At worst, it smacks of state-sanctioned, ethnic prejudice creating a caste system among Latinos and other wannabe citizens.

Contact Rhonda B. Graham, a News Journal editorial writer, at rgraham@delawareonline.com  .