| DISPARITIES IN IMMIGRATION LAWS |
| Written by Maria Elena Salinas |
| Tuesday, January 24 2006 |
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| How inconsistent are immigration laws in the United States? They are so inconsistent that there are not only different policies for those who want to enter the country legally -- as maybe there should be -- but there are different sets of rules for those who enter the country illegally.
We already know what the rules are for Mexicans. If undocumented Mexicans make it across the border and they're caught, they are out, fuera, deported immediately. For those categorized by immigration authorities as OTM (Other Than Mexican), until a few weeks ago they were caught, processed and then set free because there were not enough beds to hold them all. The Bush administration has vowed to end that policy and send them all back.
About 350,000 Central Americans have enjoyed the privilege of Temporary Protection Status that was offered to them after devastating natural disasters ravaged their homelands. In the cases of Honduras and Nicaragua, it was after Hurricane Mitch killed thousands in 1998, left millions homeless and destroyed a large part of those countries' infrastructure. For Salvadorans, the immigration protection status came after a deadly earthquake in 2001 that buried more than 1,000 people alive under tons of mud and destroyed 2,200 homes. The TPS privilege expires in a few months, and the Department of Homeland Security is recommending that it be eliminated. Congress will have to make that decision.
For Cubans, it's a whole different set of rules that dates back to the Cold War in the 1960s. In 1966, Congress approved the Cuban Adjustment Act, which gave Cuban immigrants the right to become permanent legal residents of the United States no matter how they got here. It is a right that only applies to Cubans. Haitians, on the other hand, who flee a country ravaged by political turmoil, do not enjoy this privilege. They are routinely rounded up upon arrival and sent back to their impoverished and dangerous country.
During the Clinton administration, a new policy was put in place to deal with Cuban immigrants. Those Cubans who were able to reach U.S. soil had an opportunity to apply for permanent residency. Those caught in open waters were deported back to the island. They call it the wet-foot, dry-foot policy, and it has been upheld and strictly applied during the Bush administration.
Fifteen rafters recently became victims of the absurdity of this policy. They made it to the old Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys. But since the bridge is no longer connected to land, the Coast Guard decided the obsolete bridge was not part of U.S. territory, so the 15 Cubans were sent back to the island.
The Cuban-American community is up in arms about it. The case is before a federal judge, who has hinted that he believes the Coast Guard might have made a mistake. But a reversal of that decision would not necessarily get the deported Cubans back to the U.S. Even if they received visas, the Cuban government would have to let them leave.
There's more to the immigration disparities. According to a breakdown found on the Web site of a group that supports stricter immigration laws, there are more than 1 million Europeans illegally in the United States. Most Europeans don't need a visa to come to this country -- they come under a "visa waiver" that allows them to remain in the U.S. for three months. If they overstay, they automatically become illegal and are subject to immediate deportation.
But in reality, is anyone out there hunting down 113,000 Germans who are here illegally? What industries are they working in? Do we hear of any raids on buses, clothing factories or street corners to catch 123,000 Brits who are now considered criminals for breaking our immigration laws? And what about the 226,000 Chinese here without legal papers, or the 243,000 Africans the Census Bureau claims are here illegally?
You have to wonder whether all undocumented immigrants are taken into consideration when you hear complaints about "illegals" invading our country and spreading disease, taking jobs from Americans and overwhelming our education and health-care systems.
Yes, we definitely have a broken immigration system. It doesn't work. It needs to be fixed. We could start by fixing some of the disparities in our laws. |
