Why are some immigrants are more welcome than others?

Question

Cubans who came to the U.S. were automatically classified as refugees, granted permanent residency status and given help to settle in the U.S., under the Cuba Adjustment Act.

But then...

In 1991, tens of thousands of Haitians fled death squads risking their lives on the ocean voyage, U.S. immigration officials intercepted the asylum seekers and sent them back.

Answer 1

IT is all a bunch of bull**** they all should be treated the same

Answer 2

Things like this are constantly happening...with Cubans, Hatians, and anyone else actually.

Becasue America is currently in the grips of heightened paranoia, those in charge are swayed by that and so lots and lots of brown-skinned people are gonna be automatically "profiled" and classified as potential terrorists at worst and potential purse-snatchers and drug dealers at best. It doesn't matter what death squads they're fleeing from. It's not a "racist" issue, however, becasue Poles and Russians, and many others from former Soviet Bloc countries are also denied easy access to this country, despite the fact (at least in Chicago) that if we DON'T let Polish and Russian doctors and teachers and artists into the country, there'll be no one to clean our toilets or mop our floors.

In all honesty, I think that the immigrants who are the most apparently willing to be exploited are going to be the ones most welcome. We'll let some in, especially if we're outsourcing jobs to their countries, because they've already proven that they're willing to work for less and NOT complain. We'll come up with Cuban Adjustment acts and allow Jews of Russian citizenry across our borders, because we get to pat ourselves on the back and say that we're sticking it to harsh dictatorial regimes, or largely anti-Semetic societies.

It's all really just a lottery, based on a complex array of nonsensical and arbitrary distinctions. A lot more of those distinctions than we care to admit, are also based on whether or not particular groups are "well liked" enough or possess enough exploitation potential.

Now, having said all of that...I think that Americans need to wake up and see how good things actually ARE here, despite what a few powerful, stupid and short-sighted bigots are doing. If the USA was such a bad place--as bad as the powerful, shortsighted, bigoted people's very existence implies--then why are so many people willing to risk their lives and come here illegally? Rather than pick and choose who comes and who doesn't, we should strive to live up to our own promise and potential and actually BE everything that we go around telling everyone we are.

Answer 3

Those arriving from communist countries are usually treated more fair than others. Probably because they come from such oppressive regimes. The only thing I can't figure out is why we sent Elian Gonzales back to Cuba.
I know people say because the boy belongs with his father....but his mother died trying to get him to a place where he could have a better life.
As far as the Haitians are concerned....they were definitely fleeing an oppressive regime. I would have welcomed them with open arms. But policy can only be changed by an act of congress so maybe we should put the pressure on.

Answer 4

Are there mexican death squads, now? LOL I think if you read long enough, you'll find that people lobbying for Mexico will use ANY sob story(or borrow someone else's) to try and gain entry into Los Etados Unidos. Mexico needs to fix its' own problems.
Mexicans need to live, work, and improve THEIR country. Mexico could use a little 'hard work' and some people that had some national pride, instead of just a teemin throng of people trying to figure out the best way to game Uncle Sam out of more money.

America's in debt. Heavily in debt. Part of the reason for that is because there's SO many PEOPLE trying to get in, all at once, and they'd like all the freebies that have been mistakenly given out to so many people IN america for so many years. One silver lining on the issue is that it highlights JUST how dependent our OWN people have gotten on these entitlements etc.

There has to be regulation on this. You can't try and add a million people a year to our population and expect it to be sustainable.
You quite literally can't build the infrastructure fast enough.
THAT rate of growth is just plain insane.

One of the Significant Discoveries of Science that Mexico needs to make is BIRTH CONTROL. Sorry, but that's the way it is...

Answer 5

It is all about politics. Cuban-Americans, the early arrivals, came as educated and middle-class citizens. They retain a lot of power in Florida. Haitians, on the other hand, for the most part, are uneducated and poor. That is why Mexicans and Central Americans illegal immigrants are seeing this backlash.

Answer 6

Our government makes a call on if someone is entitled to asylum. Obviously, it is a hugely wide opened door once that decision is made. It is possible that if the decision were made today, Cubans wouldn't get it either.

However, currently they are entitled to that classification.

We are allowed to make whatever laws we want about who can come here.

Answer 7

It's called:

You don't know or understand America. We get to make the rules - you illegals don't.

Cuba isn't anything like Mexico, no matter how much it lobbies - and succeds - to convince our government it's a tyrant nation.

As for Haiti - don't you dare say Bush didn't do anything:
Until last spring, Haiti, always impoverished, was hanging on. Then came the coup last spring - a coup most insiders agree was engineered by the Bush administration as a way to insure dirt cheap labor for US corporations. Just before he was ousted, Jean Bertrand Aristide had been pushing for a minimum wage from foreign corporations, and improved working conditions. Since the coup, Haiti's plight has gone from tenuous to a nighmare of civil war, killer storms, starvation, and misery. The landscape, pounded by storms and stripped by starving, desperately poor people is described as an "environmental catastrophe." So what help has the Bush admin. offered the desperate nation? $60,000 lousy dollars. Not even enough to feed the people of Port au Prince for a sincle day.

http://archive.democrats.com/preview.cfm?term=Haiti

He gave them 60 grand!!

The truth way Bush is so cheap to them is so clear, I am so surprised you didn't even pick it up with your annoying logic -

BECAUSE HAITIANS AREN'T MEXICAN!!!

How do you expect him to win his next post as president of mexico if he doesn't favor just them?

Answer 8

Political asylum which is different then "economic" asylum of whis is why there is no economic asylum.


Ginger was cute but I liked Mary Ann better

Answer 9

Cubans make d*mn good cigars that's why.

Answer 10

That was done to tick off Castro.