FULFILL THE PROMISE

For Cuban-Americans, more empty promises (DAVID ADAMS, 8/10/03, St. Petersburg Times)

It was nice and cozy while it lasted, but the Bush administration's honeymoon with Cuban-American exiles was never likely to endure.

Cuban exiles are steaming over the White House's failure to deliver on its promises of a beefed-up policy toward Cuba. In particular, they are angry over the recent repatriation of Cuban asylum seekers picked up at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Now Miami's Spanish-language airwaves are buzzing with talk of Republican betrayal. When a group of Cubans was sent back after trying to make it to Miami on a raft crafted from a 1951 Chevy truck, that inspired DJs at popular radio station El Sol 95 to come up with a catchy song accusing President Bush of turning "into a rat, just like Clinton."

The song concludes with a chorus line: "All together, let's scream: Bush is betraying us." [...]

[W]ashington has so far rejected the calls for policy change.

In fact, the newly appointed State Department chief for Latin America, Roger Noriega, was quoted last week as saying any shift in immigration policy for Cubans could invite a massive stampede from the island, as occurred in 1994.

The notion that the law should remain restrictive because so many people are desperate to flee Castro makes little sense if we really do care about the freedom of the Cuban people. The best option here is to finally remove the dictator. Barring that, we should let those who make it here stay here, regardless of whether they only make it to our waters or actually get a toe onto the sand. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 10, 2003 8:21 AM