Posted on 12/15/2006 4:05:33 PM PST by burzum
I'm not trying to be argumentative, but I'm still wondering how many Cubans made it to dry land during the same period.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Because of The Cuban Adjustment Act, passed under the Johnson administration.
Ping
Actually, we have santuary laws covering people who arrive here after fleeing the brutality of totalitarian regimes. As long as they make proper application, they are not deemed criminals and can stay pending determination of their immigration status.
Here's the numbers on Chinese. It doesn't appear they are being given sanctuary, but they have been realeased back into the public.(so much for ending catch and release, eh?
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/03-06/03-15-06/19world-nation.htm Chinese won't take back deported citizens, Chertoff says By LARA JAKES JORDAN , Associated Press writer
WASHINGTON — China is refusing to take back an estimated 39,000 citizens who have been denied immigration to the United States and have clogged detention centers at federal expense, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Chertoff said that China last year readmitted 800 people. But that made only a small dent in what he described as a backlog of thousands illegally in the U.S.
"The math is pretty easy — at that rate, we wind up with increasing numbers of migrants who, if we're going to detain them, we're going to have to house at enormous expense," Chertoff said.
He added: "We can't be in the position any longer where we are paying the burden and bearing the burden for countries that won't cooperate with us and take their own citizens back."
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately return a call for comment.
Currently, 687 Chinese are being held in federal detention facilities, at a daily rate of $95 each, while some 38,000 have been released on bond or under a monitoring program, such as wearing an electronic surveillance bracelet, the Homeland Security Department said later yesterday. Illegal immigrants can be held for 180 days before they are released.
Chertoff also said Homeland Security would open detention facilities in the next few weeks to house entire families of illegal immigrants who hope to bring their children along in order to avoid jail time. "It'll be humane, but we're not going to let people get away with this," he said. Chertoff's remarks comes as the Homeland Security Department aims to end its "catch and release" immigration policy by Oct. 1. After that date, all illegal immigrants will be held in U.S. detention centers until they can be returned to their nation of citizenry. Over the last five years, Homeland Security has deported more than 2,580 Chinese nationals, department data show. Though other nations also are refusing to take back citizens who have been denied U.S. immigration, Chertoff refused to name them yesterday, noting that the number of stranded citizens from China far outpace those from other counties.
It's all about voting blocks in Florida. Anyone who thinks there's any more noble motivation behind this is...um...very idealistic.
If 39,000 Americans showed up illegally on Chinese soil and we refused to take them back, we all know what the Chinese would do.
Nothing we do any more is reciprocal. Not trade, not labor, foreign relations, none of it. The world must think we are the dumbest bunch of people on earth. No wonder they all hate us.
You might as well ask for an explanation as to why you can use your hands to advance the ball on the field in American football but you may not use your hands to advance the ball on the field in soccer.
Them's the rules.
U.S. law states that Cubans that comes to the U.S. from Cuba and manage to set foot on dry land are considered legal refugees and the Chinese that comes to the U.S. from China and manage to set foot on dry land without a visa are considered illegal aliens.
That may not make sense to you and you may not like it but the law is the law.
Those Cubans played the game twice according to the rules.
They lost the game the first time and were deported back to Cuba and won they won the game the second time and now they get to stay.
As to why the rules are different for the Chinese and the Cubans, that comes under both the "Life Ain't Fair Rule" and the "In Politics, Those With Crucial Votes Are More Equal Than Those Without Crucial Votes Rule".
The Electoral College votes in Presidential election politics are now so close that whatever candidate wins Florida wins the Presidency and who wins Florida depends on whether or not the Cuban Americans in South Florida vote Republican at close to 80%.
Al Gore is not our President right now because the Cuban American vote in South Florida was close to 80% Republican in 2000.
So, both sides try to woo the Cuban American vote or, at the very least, try not to piss it off.
That may not be "fair" but politics has never been about "fairness". Politics is about winning.
If this is all about electoral politics, then I take it you think it's appropriate for the Dems to loosen restrictions on immigration for immigrant groups friendly to them (Mexicans, Salvadorans, tc.) now that they're in power? After all, all's fair in politics. It just seems like a self-defeating foreign policy.
They (the Cubans escaping from Castro's communist Prison)reach the U.S., and they are LEGAL, after filling out the paperwork. They will probably have friends or family and if not be a working part of the community in very short order. That they may be negative additions is of course possible, but not likely.
I did not tell you what I "thought" or what is "appropriate".
I told you how politics IS.
When the Elian Gonzalez matter came up, he no longer had to worry about re-election, so he went right back to doing Castro's bidding.
Previously, when Carter consented to the Mariel Boat Lift, he permitted the immigration of roughly 900 of Castro's worst criminal elements into America. In the 1980 election, he lost Florida.
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