Express-News Editorial Board

Published 6:28 pm, Thursday, December 10, 2015

Photo: JERRY LARA /San Antonio Express-News

Michael Fuentes, 24, adjusts his cap while outside the Cubanos en Libertad house in West Laredo last week. The house provides rest and food for Cuban refugees who enter the U.S. at the Laredo Port of Entry. But the so-called ‘wet-foot, dry-foot’ policy, which makes eligible for permanent residency Cubans who enter the U.S. by land, has fallen under scrutiny in recent weeks.

The case Rep. Henry Cuellar makes on ending the preferential treatment for Cubans in immigration is straightforward enough — and entirely correct.

First, the United States has normalized or is normalizing relations with Cuba. Second, though the Cuban government remains repressive in many respects, it appears that most Cubans coming here have the earmarks of being more economic refugees than political ones. They often come here through Texas’ border with Mexico.

In any case, other governments are as repressive as Cuba, if not more, and people fleeing those countries are not treated as generously. And we note also that even Gov. Greg Abbott is on the normalization bandwagon, talking about increasing trade with that country.

So let’s normalize immigration policy toward Cuba as well.

Cuellar, a Laredo Democrat, in a recent Texas Tribune article, says the U.S. immigration policy toward Cubans is a relic of the Cold War and that it is outdated. We agree.

The existing policy consists of allowing Cubans who get here to automatically stay here, allowing them a coveted green card signifying legal residency after they’ve been in this country for a year.

A recent Express-News article by Aaron Nelsen explained that nearly 44,000 Cubans requested asylum in the 2015 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. That represents an increase of about 24,000 from a year before. And though the flow coming across the South Texas border with Mexico has slowed, that might be because of actions in other countries that make it harder for Cubans to use them as launching pads into the U.S. Now, even Ecuador requires them to get visas to get there.

Our hearts go out to anyone fleeing desperate situations. But that description of desperate straits fits a lot of people in a lot of other countries.

And we contrast the continuing welcome for Cubans against the rhetoric targeting Syrian refugees — fleeing war in which the U.S. has a hand — and Central Americans who have also come under harsh criticism and pushback. They flee murderous gangsters and too little rule of law in their own countries.

That kind of anger is inappropriate for anyone wishing to come to this country. We are simply suggesting fairness, given how other “refugees” are treated. We are suggesting, essentially, that Cubans be treated much as Mexicans are.

No, not as in how Donald Trump treats them, but how the law does. It’s a law that needs reform in how it treats everyone, but carving out an exception for Cubans makes little sense today.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/editorials/article/Normalize-immigration-for-Cubans-6690237.php