-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 25, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
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CUBAN ADJUSTMENT ACT: ELIAN'S TRAGEDY MADE IN USA
By Teresa Gutierrez
The death of Elizabeth Broton from Cuba last November was
a terrible tragedy. It opened up a heartrending ordeal for
her son Elian and his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez--an
ordeal that is still, almost six months later, far from
over.
The tragedy, though, is not rooted in Broton's misguided
actions.
Broton's death and the subsequent nightmare are deeply
rooted in U.S. policy toward Cuba. Specifically, events of
the last few months are a direct result of the Cuban
Adjustment Act of 1966.
Long before the people of the United States heard about
Elian and Juan Miguel Gonzalez, the scene was already set
for such a tragedy to occur. In fact, such an incident was
inevitable.
U.S. policy toward Cuba lent itself to the death of
Elizabeth Broton and the ensuing exploitation of little
Elian.
For over 40 years, the United States government has
promoted illegal migration from Cuba. Democrats and
Republicans alike have done all they can to encourage
massive, illegal exits.
This is in stark contrast to immigration policies toward
Haiti, Mexico and other poor countries. With 2,000 Border
Patrol guards on the Mexican-U.S. boundary, the federal
government has aggressively militarized its southern
border. It allows and promotes the beatings and callous
deportations of millions of undocumented workers.
U.S. immigration policy toward Cuba, on the other hand, is
unlike any other.
Why is this so? Because the policy is tied to
imperialism's overall strategy of trying to undermine and
destroy socialism in Cuba.
Before the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Cubans
who came to the United States fleeing economic hardship
were treated the same way Central Americans or Dominicans
are treated now. For example, the legal procedures required
for Cubans to migrate to the United States between 1945 and
1959 were lengthy and extremely rigorous. Those who entered
without documents were deported or imprisoned.
But everything changed with the triumph of the revolution.
Despite the misleading idea that Cuba prohibits legal
exits from the country, it never hindered such exits. It's
the U.S. government that from 1959 immediately began to
encourage illegal exits from Cuba.
No longer were people trying to leave Cuba called migrants
or "illegals." Instead, Washington called these Cubans
"exiles."
Nor is Eli n the first child from Cuba to be separated
from his parents or illegally kept in the United States.
Over 14,000 Cuban children were virtually kidnapped by the
United States in 1962. It was also in 1962 that the U.S.
government abruptly suspended all regularly scheduled
flights and legal departures from Cuba.
Thousands of Cubans lost all connection to their relatives
living in the United States. The only remaining possibility
was illegal migration.
It was this kind of assault by the United States that gave
rise to all the successive migration crises that have
occurred in the last 40 years.
In 1963, President John F. Kennedy announced that Cubans
who arrived in the United States directly from the island
would be immediately received as refugees. But those who
sought to enter from third countries would be considered
aliens. They would be subject to all U.S. immigration
restrictions.
CUBA'S RESPONSE
What was the Cuban government's response? It opened the
port of Camarioca, Matanzas, in 1965 so that any Cuban
family living in the United States could pick up their
relatives in Cuba. Those Cubans on the island could leave
as long they obtained prior authorization.
Did the Cuban government allow every single Cuban to leave
immediately? No. Because the Cuban government's number-one
task was to build the revolution. It aimed to provide for
and serve the Cuban masses.
And that required not only building the country but
defending the socialist revolution as well.
Those who did not get immediate approval to leave Cuba
were those whose skills were determined indispensable.
Those who had been in active military service or in
security-related institutions were also not allowed to
leave right away. Some of these prohibitions were
temporary, however, because substitutes were being trained
and developed to allow skilled elements to leave.
It must be remembered that before the revolution, the
highly trained and skilled sector of society was drawn from
the bourgeoisie and the middle class. Their class
orientation, their drive for riches drew them toward the
leading capitalist country--the United States--and away
from the revolution.
Nonetheless, in the early 1960s, the Cuban government
allowed 260,000 people to migrate to the United States.
Did Washington reciprocate by bringing Cubans over in an
orderly and authorized manner? Of course not.
The U.S. government was selective. It sought out doctors,
nurses, professors, teachers, technicians and all those
whose departure would constitute a brain drain of Cuba.
This did not stop the revolution one moment. It set out to
train and educate the masses like never before.
In 1963, Congress approved the Cuban Adjustment Act.
President Lyndon Johnson put it into effect in November
1966. The act established special and exclusive status for
Cubans.
It stipulated that "the status of any alien who is a
native or citizen of Cuba and who has been inspected and
admitted or paroled into the U.S. subsequent to January 1,
1959, and has been physically present in the U.S. for at
least two years, may be adjusted by the attorney general,
in his discretion and under such regulations as he may
prescribe, to that of an alien lawfully admitted for
permanent residence."
This was the legal basis for the automatic right to obtain
permanent-resident status a year after entering the United
States. No such U.S. immigration legislation has ever
opened the doors to all immigrants from any other country.
Twenty-some-odd years later, under the Reagan
administration, another migration crisis developed. That
crisis led to a second migratory agreement between the
United States and Cuba.
In 1984 and 1985, migration agreements were signed
providing for the United States to issue 20,000 visas each
year to Cubans who wanted to migrate to the United States.
Over the course of 10 years, over 300,000 people could have
migrated in a legal and safe manner under the various
categories provided by the agreement.
In 1995 further stipulations were made to the agreement.
It now stipulated that Cubans who are intercepted in
international waters must immediately be returned to Cuba.
Those who reached U.S. soil could automatically apply for
residency.
WASHINGTON BREAKS AGREEMENT
But Washington never kept its end of the agreement. In
some years only 1,631 visas were approved. Sometimes 3,472
were approved . But the total never reached the 20,000 per
year agreed upon.
With the agreement violated year after year, the number of
people who attempted to migrate without authorization
increased every year as well.
The migration situation since 1989 must be put into the
context of the collapse of the former Soviet Union. The
counter-revolutionary developments in the former socialist
bloc brought untold hardship for the Cuban people.
Cuba could not find many friendly nations to trade with.
Shortages abounded as a result of international political
developments.
The United States moved in to aggravate this situation at
the very same time by tightening the blockade. In the 1990s
it passed the Torricelli Act and later the Helms-Burton Act
as a way to try to strangle the revolution.
During the 1980s the U.S. government had also put tools
such as Radio Marti and TV Marti into the hands of right-
wing Cubans in Florida. These instruments of subversion
were used to pump anti-Castro counter-revolutionary
propaganda into Cuba. It encouraged anti-social behavior
and illegal migration in an attempt to sabotage the
revolution.
Before November 1999, representatives of the Cuban
American National Foundation had been carrying out well-
orchestrated events inciting people to leave Cuba. Boats
belonging to CANF and "Brothers to the Rescue" constantly
combed the waters between Cuba and Florida looking for
rickety rafts from Cuba. They would rush the people in
these boats quickly to U.S. shores, sometimes with lots of
press and hoopla organized.
This created a dangerous situation. These cheerleaders of
harmful escapades include Miami Mayor Joe Carollo. In the
summer of 1999, months before the world learned of Eli n,
Carollo led a demonstration in Little Havana calling for a
repeal of U.S./Cuba migration agreements.
Like many members of the system he represents, Carollo
prefers that Cubans come to the United States in flimsy,
dangerous boats instead of through authorized visas. They
prefer this so they can carry out their anti-Castro
propaganda.
They prefer this so smugglers can charge $8,000 a head to
bring people over. According to a Border Patrol
spokesperson, 80 percent of the Cubans who arrive in
Florida come via smugglers.
This amounts to a full-scale flourishing of illegal
trafficking of Cubans. The Cuban counter-revolutionaries in
Florida carry it out, but it is the U.S. border officials
who look the other way. Their actions wholly serve the
interests of imperialism.
The Cuban Adjustment Act establishes special and exclusive
status for Cuban immigrants. It makes Cubans the only
people in the world who are automatically granted the right
to apply for U.S. citizenship and work permits whenever and
wherever they hit U.S. soil.
This migration policy is solely aimed to undermine the
revolution by promoting the illegal and mass exodus of
Cuban citizens. It is this cruel and unusual policy that
led to the smuggling and eventual death of Elizabeth
Broton.
The Cuban Adjustment Act must be repealed so that no other
victim will ever have to go through the nightmare Elian is
going through.
- END -
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