U.S. Judge Delays Return of 3 of Cuban Buick Rafters

[Osolomia]

Fri February 6, 2004 05:17 PM ET

By Frances Kerry
MIAMI (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge ordered on Friday that three of a group of 11 Cubans who tried to sail to Florida in a boat made from an old Buick car not be sent home at least until Monday afternoon.

U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno was responding to a motion filed in court by a Cuban American exile group seeking an injunction to stop the group from being repatriated.

... Moreno's order applied only to a family of three -- Luis Grass, his wife and son -- and not to the other eight on board the Buick. In theory, that means those eight could be repatriated at any time.

... Grass was one of those who made the journey on the Chevy truck. Lawyers for the plaintiffs said that Grass and his family had been interviewed for a visa to the United States recently and possibly were on the verge of being granted visas.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4305212

What?! Grass and his family "were on the verge of being granted visas"?! But the DU status quo insists that the only way for them to "escape" was by homemade boat and anyone who begs to differ is being "partisan"?!

[Osolomia]

1. What?!! Grass's mother "was on a short visit to the United States"

snip/...

Grass's mother, who was on a short visit to the United States when she heard her son had tried to leave Cuba, again.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/South/02/06/cuba.car.reut/index.html

How on Earth did she get there, eh DU?

[Mika]

2. Cubans do visit the US w/visas. Prominent Cubans aren't granted US visas

Anyone who knows a number of Cuban-Americans would know that many of their Cuban family members do visit their relatives in Miami and elsewhere (with a visa). They do as most Caribbean and Latin American visitors do here - go shopping, go to Disney, visit friends, see movies, etc. - then they get on one of the many direct flights from Miami to Cuba and go back home.

[Osolomia]

3. Then why do so many DUers believe the rafters have to "escape"?

And why do so many supposed Democrats want to econmically cripple the people of Cuba to this day?

[Vogon_Glory]

4. Economic Opportunity and More Freedom

I believe that many of the Cubans fleeing the island are seeking more economic opportunity and personal freedom than they had in Cuba. That's why they leave.

Despite right-wing "Amurrican" conservative whining about high taxes, the US does allow many of its hard-working to keep more of the fruits of their own labors than does the Castro government. Having to pay even the income and withholding taxes of even the Carter years (Which weren't all that heavy compared to European social democracies) is preferential to having your assets and capital seized by the government because you dared to become too prosperous.

Despite the Boosh regime's increasing inroads on our constitutional liberties and its growing efforts to criminalize dissent, the US still has more freedom of expression than does the island.

I may not be as charmed by the stage craft of that Caribbean island as certain individuals, but I am no admirer of the Boosh/Banana Republican regime currently ensconced in Washington and holding all too much power in statehouses and local governments around the USA. I hope to see both regimes brought to account by their respective long-suffering citizenries. I hope to see a circle of free countries around the Gulf of Mexico.

[Osolomia]

5. You are missing the point

My point is, contrary to the liesa and bullshit being swallowed by DUers, evidently Grass's family was perfectly free to apply for legal entry into the USA and if the USA accepted them they would be free to safely and legally travel across the Florida Straits on an airplane like everyone else.

There was absolutely no excuse whatsoever for Grass to endanger the life of his 4 year old son to get to the US. He did NOT have to "escape" in a '59 Buick.

Give me one good reason why the rafters shoud be entitled to enter the USA but the Grammy award nominees from Cuba should not?

[Mika]

7. They did apply, didn't wait

Luis Grass Rodriguez, right, and his wife Isora Hernandez, left, and their son
Angel are seen walking toward the US Interests section to ask for visas in
Havana, Cuba in this July 30, 2003 file photo. Grass, who was brought back
to Cuba after he failed to reach Florida in a converted 1951 Chevy pickup in
July 2003, was caught by the U.S. Coast Guard on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2004.
(AP File Photo/Cristobal Herrera)


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040204/481/hav10102042255

If they had made it to US shores, the US's "wet foot/ dry foot" policy and the US's Cuban Adjustment Act would render moot any negative findings as to Grass-Rodriguez's visa application.

Cuban's arriving illegally to the US bypass any and all criminal background checks required of any legal applicant, and are released into Miami's general population within 24 hours. NO MATTER WHAT THEIR CRIMINAL HISTORY MIGHT BE.

Its a free pass into the US for Cuban criminals who would otherwise be denied a legal US immigration visa.

[Mika]

6. Economic opportunity is not a valid claim for US asylum.

Some of the Buick rafters have been denied a legal asylum application after their first attempt on the Chevy truck because they admitted that they were leaving Cuba for economic reasons. Some were refused legal US immigration visas because of criminal backgrounds.

Cubans sure truck-boat was odd enough for entry
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/6379470.htm

''They told us we would not be able to go to the United States because it was illegal,'' added Eduardo Pérez Gras, who is unemployed, as are most of the rest of the people on the bright green truck-boat. ``We just wanted to be economically free, without problems.''

Its interesting that the US economic embargo (the trade and travel sanctions) on Cuba creates the poverty that these people are "escaping" from. If they tell the truth then they are denied a legal immigration visa (as were this last group).


The US offers 20,000 legal immigration visas per year to Cubans. The US does the background search.

BUT, Cubans who make it here both legally and illegally are offered immigration perks like no other nationality by the US Cuban Adjustment Act and the supplementary "wet foot/ dry foot" policy.

IF Cubans make it to the US, NO MATTER HOW, they get to stay and enjoy all of the benefits of the Cuban Adjustment Act. For Cubans exclusively, it offers instant work visa, instant qualification for a green card, instant sec 8 housing with an upper income exemption, instant social security, instant welfare (with some additional perks just for ex-Cubans).

PLUS, they don't have to qualify for a legal visa background search for criminal records or mental illness diagnosis (required of everyone else who wants a US immigration visa).


There is nothing else that compares to this in US immigration policy.


People flock to the US from all over the Caribbean and Latin Americas -democracies-, risking their lives, and quite a few die attempting, NONE are offered what Cuban immigrants are offered.

Cuban immigrants are the only type of Americans, hyphenated Americans, or resident aliens allowed by the US gov to visit Cuba. They are a special class of "super" citizen in the US that have immigration perks, tax & income exemptions, and (unlike the rest of us in the USA) they have their FULL travel rights.

Why would 100,000 Cubans every year want to return to the evil island of the evil Dr Castro that they "escaped" from? I'll tell you why.. they are not "escaping" Cuba. They are coming to America for the same reason that almost all immigrants have come here - (perceived) opportunity - except that Cubans are offered a little lot more opportunity.

[Mika]

12. Stage craft?

"I may not be as charmed by the stage craft of that Caribbean island as certain individuals.."

Hey, VG, I have been all over Cuba. I have rented cars and driven to wherever I wanted to go. As millions of people have seen (except travel banned US citizens) the achievements of the Cuban people are real and impressive. Not stage craft.

Only if you believe that all of Cuba is a "stage" could you believe that Cuba's complete health care and education systems are stage craft.


Of course, Americans throwing around terms and accusations without have actually having been there is really just mouthing anti Cuba propaganda.

[rincons land]

8. these guys should be on Monster Garage

last summer they tried this in an old Chevy truck. Jessee James couldn't have done a better job.

[Mika]

9. They should face a competency hearing in a family court

They should face a competency hearing in a family court for recklessly endangering five children. These cretins put five small children out to sea, to the Gulf Stream, on that dangerous craft WITHOUT LIFE VESTS. Those children faced imminent drowning due to the criminal negligence of the adults in charge.

If adults want to risk their own death with such a dangerous stunt (illegal at that) OK. But to put children at such risk constitutes reckless child endangerment and should result in a competency hearing in a family court wherever they end up.

Maybe you don't realize that children who drown in the Gulf end up DEAD.

[Osolomia]

10. If you're a Democrat then take your blinders off and look at the facts

There's no excuse for these people to be endangering the lives of children and being idolized for it, they are perfectly free to immigrate to the USA legally and safely as this photo goes to show:


Luis Grass Rodriguez, right, and his wife Isora Hernandez, left, and their son
Angel are seen walking toward the US Interests section to ask for visas in
Havana, Cuba in this July 30, 2003 file photo. Grass, who was brought back
to Cuba after he failed to reach Florida in a converted 1951 Chevy pickup in
July 2003, was caught by the U.S. Coast Guard on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2004.
(AP File Photo/Cristobal Herrera)

Yhe persistent ignorant bigotry of DUers on this issue is palpable.

[Mika]

11. See how starving and impoverished they look?

Just as I have witnessed on my travels all over Cuba, I don't see any missed meals in that crowd of visa applicants.

[Osolomia]

13. Where's the police state that DUIers like to fantasize so much about?

Eh DU?

[Judi Lynn]

15. Good question!

"Where's the police state that DUIers like to fantasize so much about?"

Someone found and posted OTHER photos last year of the bunch of them sitting around together for interviews after their first return to Cuba. They ALL looked very sturdy, physically, as Mika has pointed out a year ago, too.

I need to take the time to accent the info. in one of the earlier articles, which was buried right at the very end of the article, almost an aside, that the mother of Grass was actually VISITING the U.S. on a visitor's visa.

How MANY TIMES have the anti-embargo posters written about this, only to have new posts arrive claiming Cubans are chained or nailed to their island and are completely forbidden to leave?

Some people are confused, and laboring under the intentional disinformation we have been fed. NON CUBAN-AMERICANS are the ones who are forbidden to travel to CUBA.

By the way, when I was posting at CNN's now defunct message board, several years ago, I found a great article which I've lost track of concerning a man who has been walking AROUND THE WORLD, who is Cuban.

He started walking around Cuba, from one end to the other, then decided he needed a bigger challenge, and started going to other countries and walking across them, and has finally focused on some ENORMOUS goal, which I forget, but it's probably walking across every country in the world, or something!

Here's a photo of Luis Grass, back in Cuba, after he was sent home when the U.S. Coast Guard blew up his truck, and returned him:



It should cause SOMEONE's gray matter to twitch a bit, and trigger a bit of rumination over why, if Cuba is a police state, they went back home and promptly got to work on their next attempt.

Also, want to take the time to reassert the reality that Cuban "police state" policemen do NOT carry guns.

[Judi Lynn]

14. While these guys are trying again to bypass the visa system

other people have been trying to get INTO Cuba to help the people there overcome some of the setbacks from the embargo.

I just stumbled across more information on Benjamin Treuhaft who has been working away at getting new and used pianos to Cuba to replace the old ones students need, and adult musicians, since the old ones are succumbing to termites and the tropical climate, as, after all these years, and intense humidity, with no replacement parts, they're ROTTING!

First, a new photo of a completely good looking 1950's car.

To see a great large version of this photo, go to this link and click on the car!
http://www.stringsforcuba.com/page5.htm

Can't cut and paste the British article, will leave the link:
http://www.stringsforcuba.com/page5_article3.htm
Found it was notable that the man trying to get his shipment of replacement strings to Cuba was determined to do it on the day George Bush intended to announce he planned to firmly enforce the embargo.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Treuhaft tuning in Havana

A remark heard recently: Talking about Cuba without mentioning the embargo is like discussing the talent of a great baseball batter without referring to the powerful pitchers he's had to confront.

[Osolomia]

16. Kick, so there's no excuse for the ignorant bigotry of DUers

No excuse whatsoever.

[Judi Lynn]

18. Insolated, isolated, disinterested, apathetic?

Sounds like the pResident.

Probably very few are aware of the continuously murderous death squads in countries we send big blobs of taxpayers' money, shoring up their right-wing looney-toons regimes: regimes _Bush heartily supports, like Colombia, at a HUUUUUGE expense to the American public.

Probably don't know that the people who pile into boats for the 600 mile trip from Haiti, sometimes, even often perishing in the effort, get sent right back to a country where they actually CAN get killed, not to mention find absolutely no way to support themselves in hideous economies.

Probably aren't aware of all the refugees coming from the Dominican Republic, this time more in January than in ALL of 2003, to Puerto Rico, trying to get somewhere where they can find work, who ALSO are being rounded up by the U.S. Coast Guard and shipped home.

Oh, well.......

[DS1]

17. I think we should let them stay

Obviously they have some mechanical talent.

[Osolomia]

19. Surely a real Democrat would take their blinders off and look at the facts

before jumping to ignorant conclusions don't you think?

Funny, I don't see you supporting letting the Grammy award nominees into the US or the hundreds of other Cubans who took the legal and safe route but were denied visas by the US. It's only if they try to sneek in illegally and needlessly endanger the lives of children in the process that they'll get DU's support eh?

[Mika]

22. Yeah, let em stay to do work that "Americans don't want", right?

The Miami area has way too many jobs, with not enough immigrants.

Anyway, Americans don't need no stinkin jobs.
<sarcasm off>


Miami = the poorest city in the USA.

[GRClarkesq]

20. Checked the "2002 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics" re: Cuba

Figures are for FY2002 (10/1/02 - 9/30/02)

Immigrants only! Not counting visitors, students etc.

Total Cubans admitted: 28,272

Admitted under Cuban Adjustment Act: 21,108

Admited as refugees or asylees: 24,893 (CAA plus others)

A little math leaves 3379 Cubans gaining permanent resident status through means other than CAA or as refugees or asylees

NOTE: "Cuban" defined as country of birth. Country of last residence could be different. Dual nationals can take advantage of CAA.

http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/Immigs.htm

[Osolomia]

21. If so then the USA did not live up to its end of the migration accord

to accept 20,000 immigrant visa applicants from Cuba in 2002.

Thu, Sep. 18, 2003

CUBA
U.S. says it has filled annual quota for visas
Havana and Washington have accused each other of delaying legal immigration in order to provoke a migration crisis.
BY ANITA SNOW
Associated Press

HAVANA - The American mission here announced Wednesday it had overcome a severe backlog in U.S. immigrant visa requests and fulfilled its annual quota of 20,000 such visas for Cubans.

The visa backlog in the U.S. Interests Section had been a point of contention with the Cuban government, which earlier this year accused American officials of intentionally slowing down the approval process to spark a migration crisis.

''As of Sept. 16, 2003, the U.S. Interests Section, Havana, Cuba, has issued travel documents to 20,000 Cuban citizens, as required by the 1994 U.S.-Cuba Migration Accord,'' the mission said in a brief news release.

''Under the accord, the United States agreed to document for migration 20,000 Cubans per year in order to ensure the safe, legal and orderly migration from Cuba to the U.S,'' the news release continued. ``We urge the Cuban government to grant exit permits to all those Cubans who have received the U.S. travel documents. The United States is committed to and will continue to honor its obligations under the Migration Accords.''

It was unclear how American officials were able to catch up so quickly. In April, Cuban officials reported that only about 700 of the 20,000 immigrant visas required annually had been granted for the U.S. government's fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

... Before the new regulations took effect, a Cuban seeking to emigrate to the United States generally could get final documentation allowing travel within a week after qualification by U.S. consular officials. That process now takes several weeks.

More...
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/6799283.htm

United States: Cuba (last updated 10/13/01)

United States immigration policy towards Cuba has adapted with the end of the Cold War and economic problems in that country. From the rise of Fidel Castro's Communist regime in 1959 until post-Cold War developments in 1994, the United States operated a more or less open-door policy towards people leaving Cuba, primarily motivated by the Cold War concerns of the United States towards a Communist neighbor.

This policy was first tested in 1980 during the first mass migration emergency faced by the United States. Between April 21 and September 28, 1980, about 125,000 Cubans entered the United States by a flotilla of mostly United States vessels in violation of United States vessels, encouraged by Castro's permitting anyone to leave from the port of Mariel, Cuba.

Nevertheless, the policy was maintained over the ensuing decade. In 1981, President Reagan issued Presidential Proclamation 4865, suspending the entry of undocumented migrants via the high seas. In 1992, President Bush issued Executive Order 12807 ordering the Coast Guard to stop the entry of undocumented migrants by interdicting them at sea and returning them to their country of origin or departure.

In August 1994, the number of Cubans leaving by boat for the United States increased rapidly, which some blamed on a severe economic recession brought about by the withdrawal of former Soviet subsidies that had been worth around $5 billion a year; Castro put the blame instead on the continuing United States embargo of Cuba. With about 30,000 Cubans using flimsy boats to enter the United States, the United States government announced in August 1994 that the Coast Guard would interdict migrants and hold them at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, which is located on the same island as Cuba, and at another holding center in the Panama canal zone. The Coast Guard interdicted about 30,000 Cubans through its Operation Able Vigil in a roughly one-month period, interdicting a high of 3,253 in one day.

On September 10, 1994, the United States then reached an agreement with Cuba covering several points. The United States reaffirmed its earlier decision to stop accepting refugees automatically, and Cuba agreed to prevent unsafe departures using mainly persuasive means. Both governments agreed to take measures against Cuban hijackers of ships and aircraft. Finally, the United States agreed to issue 20,000 entry visas a year, thus providing a regular means of leaving the country for the United States.

By the beginning of 1995, the number of departures from Cuba by sea had fallen dramatically, but there were still more than 30,000 rafters still held at the two U.S. facilities. The two governments then argeed in May 1995 to admit most of the rafters still at Guatanamo Bay and to return subsequent rafters to Cuba following a brief screening procedure.

The United States admitted about 10,000 Cuban immigrants a year in the early 1990s, with a high of 33,587 in 1997, and then a decline by half in 1998. From 1992 to 1994, the United States admitted about 3,000 refugees from Cuba a year, peaking at 6,133 in 1995, and then falling down to 1,587 in 1998. Even in 1995, Cubans received only a small part (roughly 6 percent) of the allotted spaces for refugees brought to the United States; the former Soviet Union, the former Yugoslavia, Vietnam and Somalia all provided two to 15 times as many refugees each.

In general, United States immigration policy is divided into legal immigration policy based primarily on familial relationships and employment needs, refugee policy based on bringing people fearing persecution to the United States, and asylum policy giving protection to people who fear persecution and are already in the United States (read more here).

The Coast Guard continues to interdict illegal immigrants attempting to enter the United States via the high seas. Since the early 1990s, there has been a shift from migrants taking to seas in rafts to employing smugglers; this method is still dangerous as overloaded vessels have overturned, resulting in deaths. Besides Cubans, the Coast Guard has interdicted illegal immigrants from Haiti, China, the Dominican Republic, and recently Ecuador and Mexico.

http://www.newsaic.com/mwmigration.html