Left foot, right foot

Wet foot, dry foot

It took a famine in Ethiopia for attention to be paid to Africa. It took a tsunami in the Philippines for people to realize the citizens’ horrible living standards. For Haiti, it took an earthquake. An earthquake, for people to get up and care.

 It was 4:53 p.m. on Tuesday, January 12. Ten miles west of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, a tragic earthquake pulverized the way citizens of Haiti live day by day, creating a struggle for survival, uncertain if they will live another day.  

Lost lives - each day buried in mass graves, the act developing into a habitual process. Since the collapsing result of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake, some wonder if significant amounts of Haitians will begin to leave their home country in search of better opportunities, similar to Cubans. Yet that might be the only similarity between the two islands as each has separate and distinct sets of regulations when it comes to reaching American land.

Laws here in the United States - specifically, the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 - say that it is against the law for any Haitian to set foot on American soil without proper documentation; their rights are not protected in the United States and if caught, will be deported. The same policy, though, does not apply to Cuban immigrants in the same way. Essentially, anyone who flees Cuba and gets into the United States will be allowed to pursue residency a year later on one condition: they must touch dry sand; if they are caught before being able to touch authentic U.S. land, they can and will be deported back to Cuba (notthehaitians.com). But they get the chance to at least risk their lives in hopes of something greater. Haitians don’t have that luxury. This is known as the “wet foot, dry foot policy.”

Why this dissonance in policy? Well, Cuba is under communist rule, which “means” that if they were to flee their country, they are leaving for political exile whereas Haitians are leaving for economic prosperity.

That is ridiculous.

How can anyone prove that a Cuban is leaving the island for political freedom when even with slightly better conditions than Haiti, living standards are still incomparable to that of the United States?

Thousands in Miami-Dade alone clearly leave Cuba in search of better opportunities. They come in search of the American Dream, to be free. It is great that we grant many the opportunity to live here for those who are brave enough to make the journey. But why negate the opportunity of others for a better life when they might even need it more. Sure, they have a democratic government, but so does Nigeria and look how they are doing.

If this country is about giving others opportunity, then Haitians should have just as much a chance to come to the States as Cubans do.

It is no coincidence that policies in South Florida tend to cater to Cubans as there is such a concentrated amount of them living in the Sunshine State.

Just picture a boat-load of desperate Haitian refugees floating ashore South Florida beaches, given Haiti’s current devastation. How do you take them and tell them you have to go back? It’s immoral, yet we do it.

The “wet foot dry foot” policy was revised during Bill Clinton’s presidency when negotiations between the U.S and Cuba were frequent. Diplomacy at its best. Entrance to this country should not be about technicalities of “communist” versus “impoverished democracies.”

This whole taking in immigrants from communist countries ordeal is simply just imperialistic residue that Americans have practiced for over a century. We need to stop. Equal opportunity? Not necessarily.

If there is a policy for immigrants it should apply for all immigrants and not just specific nationalities.

Since 1994, 20,000 visas are granted annually to Cubans living on the island in what they call “el bombo” in Cuba. According to a CRS (Congressional Research Service) Report on the U.S. immigration policy on Haitian migrants by Ruth Ellen Wasem, a specialist in Immigration Policy, “From 1981 through 1990, 22,940 Haitians were interdicted at sea. Of this number, INS considered 11 Haitians qualified to apply for asylum in the United States.”

Just because a country is communist does not mean that conditions are worse than those in democracies. Not all democracies are like America’s.

            It is unfair to grant asylum to Cubans more frequently than we do Haitians. Surely, it does not correlate with our internationally known ideals of equality of opportunity.