U.S. policy welcoms Cubans, rebuffs Haitians

MIAMI -- Eight Cubans land in Key West aboard a crop-duster and are allowed to remain in the United States. More than 200 Haitians come ashore aboard a rickety ship near downtown Miami and are all but certain to be sent back to their desperately poor homeland.

The two groups' very different fates dramatize what some Haitian-Americans say is a cruel and racist double standard in U.S. immigration policy, shaped largely by the Cold War.

"If you come here from a communist country, it's OK. If you come from a white country, it's OK. If you come here from a black country, noncommunist, it's not OK," said Jacques Despinosse, a North Miami city councilman who represents the city's growing Haitian-American community.

For more than 40 years, Cuban refugees have routinely been given asylum in the United States. Under a "wet-foot, dry-foot" policy adopted by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in the 1990s, Cubans who reach U.S. soil are automatically allowed to stay; those caught at sea are sent home.

The government's explanation is that the Cubans are fleeing Fidel Castro's communist government and are assumed to face political persecution if they are returned.

Haitians, who represent the latest large wave of immigrants arriving in South Florida, are usually deported, often after being detained by the INS until their asylum cases are heard. The government says most of the Haitians are economic, not political, refugees and not entitled to asylum.

Different policies

The different policies were thrown into sharp relief by the arrival of the Cuban family in Key West on Monday and the televised dash for freedom by more than 200 Haitians on Oct. 29.

Rep. Carrie Meek, a black Democrat from Miami, confronted Gov. Jeb Bush during a campaign stop last month, urging him to contact his brother President Bush and get him to free the Haitians.

"All you have to do is call -- the wet-foot, dry-foot policy would take effect," she said. "You can do it."

Meek and other community leaders have said they will hold a protest march on Washington in February.

The differing policies on Cuba and Haiti might reflect a difference in political influence.

South Florida's Cuban-American community has grown into a powerful economic and political force since the first wave of refugees began arriving more than 40 years ago. Miami-Dade County has an estimated 650,000 Cubans.

The state has elected three Cuban-Americans to Congress, all Miami Republicans: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, and Diaz-Balart's brother Mario. The mayors of Miami-Dade County and the city of Miami are Cuban-Americans, as are a majority of the county and city commissions.

The Haitian-Americans' political influence has also been growing, spreading from Miami's Little Haiti into North Miami, but they do not have the clout of the Cubans. The 2000 Census put South Florida's Haitian community at 150,000, though advocacy groups said the number is closer to 450,000.