A Moldy Cuba-Immigrant Policy

Every year, more than 20,000 Cubans come legally to live in the United States under a generous 1995 immigration agreement with the Castro regime. Above that 20,000, even Cubans who flee to the U.S. for economic reasons find it relatively easy to become legal residents, in contrast with economic refugees from other countries--including a comparably poor and oppressed Caribbean island nation, Haiti. No other national or ethnic group gets the special treatment Cubans get, which casts a long shadow over the fairness of U.S. immigration policies.

The 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, which frames U.S. policy toward Cuba, is a curious mix of outdated Cold War policies and cynical domestic politics. Under the law, Cubans who arrive on U.S. shores without permission are likely to be granted legal residence one year and one day later, even without the “well-founded fear of persecution” at home that U.S. law requires of all other political refugees.

The issue is perfectly illustrated by this week’s dramatic news of a crop-duster pilot who tried to fly a state-owned plane to Florida with six other adults and three children aboard. Almost out of fuel, he ditched the craft near a freighter in the Gulf of Mexico. The pilot’s brother died in the water, but the others were rescued. Barring criminal charges in the theft of the airplane or the discovery of a criminal record, all will no doubt be allowed to stay in the United States. Such a privilege is not granted to, say, the Mexican immigrants found in the California and Arizona deserts half-dead from heat or cold; these people are kept until they are well and then sent back.

This skewed policy is a product of the lack of normal U.S. relations with Cuba, even as equally Communist and far more powerful China gains a full place at the global table. In a developed world committed to free trade, the U.S. blind spot toward Cuba grows ever more archaic.