Cruise Ship Rescues 41 Cubans
HAVANA TIMES — A cruise ship rescued 41 Cubans on a small boat who were trying to reach the United States, informed the US Coast Guard Service in Miami, reported dpa.
The rescue took place when the boat was spotted on Tuesday night. The Coast Guard later confirmed that the Cubans were without life vests or navigation equipment.
The Cubans will most likely be returned to the island in compliance with the standing migratory agreement between the USA and Cuba.
Under US law, Cubans who arrive illegally to United States territory are allowed to stay and then receive assistance and a fast track to permanent residency, however those captured at sea are repatriated to the island.
What could Walter Teague and John Goodrich possibly know that these Cubans do not? Perhaps Walter and JG should reach out to them and let them in on their little secret …whatever that may be.
Here’s an interesting story about Yasiel Puig and his several attempts to escape Cuba:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/coast-guard-crew-reflects-on-time-with-yasiel-puig-during-attempt-to-defect-to-u-s–141306377.html
The US Coast Guard picked him up and returned him at least once, but he kept on trying. He eventually made it and Puig now plays baseball for the LA Dodgers.
No, that’s not why the “wet foot, dry foot” policy exits. It applies only to Cubans, not to Haitians or any other refugees.
From Wiki:
“Between 1962 and 1979, hundreds of thousands of Cubans entered the United States under Attorney General’s parole authority, many of them arriving by boat. In 1980, a mass migration of asylum seekers—known as the Mariel boatlift—brought approximately 125,000 Cubans …to South Florida over a six-month period. After declining for several years, Cuban “boat people” steadily rose from a few hundred in 1989 to a few thousand in 1993. After Castro made threatening speeches in 1994, riots ensued in Havana, and the Cuban exodus by boat escalated. The number of Cubans intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard or the U.S. Border Patrol reached a post-Mariel high of 37,191 in 1994.
Until 1995, the United States generally had not repatriated Cubans (except certain criminal aliens on a negotiated list) under a policy established when the government became Communist within two years of the 1959 revolution. Not only has the United States been reluctant to repatriate people to Cuba, but the Cuban government typically has also refused to accept Cuban migrants who are excludable under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
“Normalizing” migration between the two nations was the stated purpose of the migration agreement enacted by the Clinton Administration on September 9, 1994, when the status quo of U.S. policy toward Cuban migrants was altered significantly. The plan’s objectives of safe, legal, and orderly immigration relied on six points.
1. The United States agreed to no longer permit Cubans intercepted at sea to come to the United States; rather, Cubans would be placed in a safe haven camp in a third location. Justifying this policy as a “safety of life at sea” issue, Cuba also agreed to use “persuasive methods” to discourage people from setting sail.
2. United States and Cuba reaffirmed their support for the United Nations General Assembly resolution on alien smuggling. They pledged to cooperate in the prevention of the illegal transport of migrants and the use of violence or “forcible divergence” to reach the United States.
3. The United States agreed to admit no fewer than 20,000 immigrants from Cuba annually, not including the immediate relatives of U.S. citizens.
4. The United States and Cuba agreed to cooperate on the voluntary return of Cubans who arrived in the United States or were intercepted at sea.
5. The United States and Cuba did not reach an agreement on how to handle Cubans who are excluded by the INA, but they did agree to continue discussing the matter.
6. The United States and Cuba agreed to review the implementation of this agreement and engage in further discussions.
There are a growing number of people who are calling for changes to the wet foot, dry foot policy, including the Cuban-American US Senator, Marco Rubio. He raised the issue that many of the Cubans who have arrived in recent years soon make return visits to Cuba. This is in contrast to the historical refugees (pre-Mariel) most of whom could not return for fear of persecution by the Castro regime, or who have vowed never to return until after the Castros are gone. Rubio said that the Cubans who routinely return to Cuba make a mockery of the original intention of the wet foot, dry foot policy.
The U.S. “wet-foot” policy is pretty dumb if you ask me. Anyone who sacrifices their life to escape from Cuba and is picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard should be allowed the opportunity to live in the U.S. if they can prove that they are not criminals or undesirables. I suspect that this policy also has something to do with discouraging thousands of Haitians from attempting to migrate to the U.S. since they are normally dirt poor, uneducated and poorly nourished.
Very sad to hear about this knowing that each one of the 41 Cubans has sacrificed to get enough money to leave the island, only to be returned and now, will no doubt suffer the consequences.
Another group of Cubans who do not share Walter Teague’s, John Goodrich’s, and other pro-Castro commenters understanding of how good life is in Cuba and how awful it would have been for them to live in the US.