Border: Mere months after easing restrictions on Cuba, the U.S. is now reaping its inevitable reward: We send them tourists with millions of dollars, and Cuba sends us poverty-stricken refugees. Some deal.
A new report says that at least 7,000 Cuban "refugees" are expected to reach the Texas border in coming days. Virtually all of them are arriving from Central America, where they have been welcomed with less than open arms by governments that want nothing to do with a refugee crisis. The U.S. still has favorable immigration laws for Cubans, so they're coming before the law changes -- which it almost certainly will.
Last year, 43,000 Cubans entered the U.S., nearly doubling the 24,000 of a year earlier. As recently as 2011, a mere 7,000 or so entered.
And the tide is growing. Aided by the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, there really is no such thing as a Cuban illegal immigrant. All they have to do is arrive here. Indeed, the law is so loose that anyone claiming even a single parent born in Cuba can gain legal residency here. The Cuban Adjustment Act, passed during the Cold War, was intended to induce Cuba's best and brightest to leave the island communist dictatorship ruled by Fidel Castro and his brother, Raul, for nearly 60 years. And it worked.
Now it's being exploited by Cuba's government. Those coming here aren't the freedom seekers of 50 years ago. They're mostly economic refugees, seeking jobs or taking advantage of the U.S.' extraordinarily generous welfare benefits.
This underscores not just the moral bankruptcy of President Obama's Cuban policy, but also the willingness of our so-called neighbors, such as Mexico, to dump their own problems on the U.S.
Thousands of Cuban immigrants are traveling from Cuba to Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and other countries. And how have these nations treated their fellow Spanish speakers? They've closed their borders to them. Now, along with Mexico, these countries are helping Cubans make the trek to the U.S.
Now they're our problem.
Of course, immigration from Cuba is nothing new. But it's being used as a social release valve by the aging Castros, who are once again taking advantage of the U.S. -- just as they did under Jimmy Carter, when they encouraged the Mariel boatlift that included criminals, drug addicts, the mentally ill and social misfits who helped touch off a South Florida crime wave in the 1980s.
As 7,000 Cuban newcomers approach our border, the Treasury Department on Tuesday issued new rules easing U.S. tourism to Cuba and lifting export restrictions on such goods as software, civil aviation gear, telecom systems and farm equipment -- all badly needed by Cuba's state-run economy.
Don't think this isn't causing trouble for Cuba. Reuters runs this headline: "Surge of Americans tests limits of Cuba's tourism industry." So as we send Cuba rich tourists, they send us poor refugees.
"You can blame the 'normalization ' of relations with Cuba for the increase (in refugees)," noted Rick Moran on the American Thinker website.
He's right. This is a typical one-sided deal struck by Obama with an enemy. They get benefits, we pay for it. We are bolstering the Castros in power and perhaps ensuring that the next government Cuba has will be communist, too. After all, they've cracked down anew on dissent, jailing dissidents and crushing independent voices in the press, and President Obama has rewarded them for it.
