Here’s an example of the uniqueness of American immigration policy toward Cubans. Cubans who live in Venezuela, including those who were born in Venezuela to Cuban parents who went to Venezuela after 1959, are able to come to the United States and get on the path to U.S. residency, according to this Herald article. This is the result of a U.S. government decision last August to admit anyone who can prove Cuban parentage, even if they were born in a third country and have that country’s citizenship. According to a lawyer quoted in the article, the decision has “opened the doors not only to the sons and daughters of Cubans in Venezuela, but also to those living anywhere else in the world.” Increasing numbers of Venezuelans are going to the Cuban consulate in Caracas to obtain documents proving their Cuban parentage, and apparently they don’t have to make any claim of persecution or wait in line for a family reunification visa; Cuban parentage is enough.
Subordinating a supposed refugee policy to foreign policy aims is immoral.
ReplyDeleteIronically, it is the leniancy of the Cuban Constitution in determining Cuban citizenship, which may have given US authorities the legal cover to pull this off. Of course, it is the desire to sully Hugo Chavez that is really behind this.