The new fears of Cubans in Florida

[Spider-Dan]

The new fears of Cubans in Florida

The privileged status they have enjoyed since the cold war is slipping away

The Freedom Tower, a Miami museum overlooking Biscayne Bay that honours the history of Cuban exiles, will be unveiled next month after its $65m facelift. Between 1962 and 1974 it was the Cuban Refugee Centre, and through it passed around 400,000 people who fled after the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro. They received food, money, medicine and a warm welcome. One of the museum’s exhibits notes loftily that “Freedom is not just a dream, but a shared responsibility.”

That message is hard to square with the feeling that south Florida’s Cubans have today. In the harsh immigration facility that officials insist on calling the Alligator Alcatraz, some 95% of detainees are citizens of Latin American countries. Most are from Mexico, Guatemala or Cuba, and most entered the country in the past few years by avoiding official border crossings and airports.

Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans fear that same fate after the Trump administration ended programmes that gave some of them hope for future residency. Yet it is Cubans who feel most hard done by, because they have in the past enjoyed exceptional immigration privileges.

Under the Cuban Adjustment Act (CAA), passed in 1966, they can apply for permanent residency after a year. Now Cuban arrivals who skirt border points, and increasingly those who do not, receive the same i-220a document—and a court date that could be years hence—that other nationalities do. The i-220a confers a nebulous status: released into the country, but subject to apprehension at the later whim of immigration officials. And it all but precludes Cubans from receiving permanent residency under the CAA.

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This honestly can't happen fast enough.  Florida Cubans have been one of the strongest Latino anti-immigrant voices for decades, likely because it was literally impossible for a Cuban national in the US to be an illegal immigrant.  For Cuban-Americans, the immigration system was always someone else's problem.  Maybe if they feel what it's like for any other group of brown people to try to enter this country, it will help them develop some empathy.

The absolute banger quote from this article:

Cubans were “the darlings of the cold war”, says Joe Garcia, a Cuban-American and a former Democratic congressman. Now, he says, “all of a sudden, we’re just like Mexicans.”

Indeed.

[CF DolFan]

In my experience in road work I see many Cubans and Mexicans who fully support what is going on. They came here and became citizens and don't appreciate others who did not have to jump through the hoops they or their parents did. I'm guessing it also makes them more valuable so there is that.  We also have some Jamaican and Haitian concrete finishers (who have a hard time getting along) but they couldn't care less either way. Puerto Ricans seem to be the most outspoken ... especially if they are NY Ricans. Oddly enough one of the most outspoken and vocal Trump supporters I know is a NY Rican. She doesn't care who you are and will aggressively tell you off in a minute if you try and speak down on MAGA. Hahahaha

[Spider-Dan]

Cubans haven't had to "jump through" any bureaucratic hoops since 1966.  All they had to do was literally be standing on US soil, and they had a free & clear path to permanent US residency.

(edit to clarify: this ended in 2017)

[Fau Teixeira]

Puerto Ricans are americans

[Sibster]

Cubans haven't had to "jump through" any bureaucratic hoops since 1966.  All they had to do was literally be standing on US soil, and they had a free & clear path to permanent US residency.

(edit to clarify: this ended in 2017)

I'm glad it did.   They should be treated just like any other foreign national.   If you want to come to this country for a better life, bring what you can from your old country, including whatever job skills you have.   Get processed properly, find a sponsor family, get a job that is commiserate with your job skills, learn English, and do the best you can.   

[Fau Teixeira]

I'm glad it did.   They should be treated just like any other foreign national.   If you want to come to this country for a better life, bring what you can from your old country, including whatever job skills you have.   Get processed properly, find a sponsor family, get a job that is commiserate with your job skills, learn English, and do the best you can.   

then get sent to el salvador or uganda

[CF DolFan]

Puerto Ricans are americans

Kind of. If they are here in the US but otherwise cannot vote. I do get what you are saying but they still have opinions. In fact, they typically have a lot of them. Hahaha

[Spider-Dan]

No, Puerto Ricans are just Americans, as much as any American who happens to reside in DC.

[CF DolFan]

No, Puerto Ricans are just Americans, as much as any American who happens to reside in DC.

As unusual ... I'd say that's just semantics. I get they are Americans but not all U.S. constitutional rights apply to them just like they don't to people born in the US Virgin Islands. They have to leave their "country" and move to the states to get them.

[Spider-Dan]

What are you talking about?  Residents of PR have every "constitutional right" that residents of DC have.

Are you arguing that residents of DC "have to leave their 'country' and move to the states" to be full Americans?

[CF DolFan]

Can a PR vote in federal elections if they are in PR? Nope.
Can a DC resident vote in a federal election? Yes
Can a PR resident leave PR and move to the states and then vote in a federal election? Yes.
Can a DC resident move to PR and still vote in federal elections? Yes

They are not the same. DC is located inside the states while PR is not which gives it different "rights" as an American citizen.

[Spider-Dan]

Can a PR vote in federal elections if they are in PR? Nope.
Can a DC resident vote in a federal election? Yes

Incorrect.  Every American citizen in Puerto Rico has the right to vote in a federal election.

Like DC, PR has a delegate they elect to the House.  These delegates can serve and vote on committees, but not on the final passage of bills.  They are elected in federal elections just like other members of Congress.

I'm not sure why you're so determined on insisting that Puerto Ricans aren't real Americans, but you're simply wrong.

[Phishfan]

Spider,you are wrong at least partially. Puerto Rico can't vote for the US President.

[Spider-Dan]

PR votes in presidential primaries, but not the general election.
DC has a non-voting House delegate, but (like PR) no representation whatsoever in the Senate.
That does not make residents of either of these areas any less of a real American than you or me.

And just to be super clear: every American citizen has the same constitutional rights, no matter which state, territory, or district you live in.
You don't have an individual constitutional right to a US Senator, or an Electoral College delegate; you have the constitutional right to vote for those seats that are assigned to a jurisdiction you reside in.  That's not the same thing.

[Fau Teixeira]

A resident of a state or DC that moves to puerto rico doesn't get to vote for president either, it's not a function of being puerto rican, it's a function of that territory not having electors.  Someone from Iowa isn't less american if they move to puerto rico