Advertisement

Book about ‘Cuban privilege’ stirs controversy in Miami. Read what it says

A book to be presented at Florida International University in Miami on Friday evening that advocates ending immigration benefits for what it calls “privileged” Cuban immigrants has sparked protests.

“Cuban Privilege: The Making of Immigrant Inequality in America,” by Boston University professor Susan Eckstein, argues that Cuban immigrants who have been coming to the U.S since the 1960s are not genuine refugees nor political exiles since most did not leave the island because they faced persecution.

Prominent Cuban Americans have criticized the book presentation, organized by FIU’s Cuban Research Institute, and activists planned to protest. Following the backlash, FIU president Kenneth A. Jessell issued a statement defending academic freedom but adding that the institution was “using these recent events as an opportunity to improve our processes and ensure we create programs that meet the highest academic standards while remaining sensitive to our community.”

Here are some excerpts of key portions of the book:

“The United States extended unique entitlements to Cubans even after Castro died and even after his brother Raúl’s tenure as head of state... At times, Cubans even were privileged at the expense of both other foreigners and native-born Americans.”

“In disrespecting Cuba’s right to self-determination, the U.S. rationale for privileging Cubans was never noble. Yet, in due course, Cuban immigrants helped transform Miami into an economically and culturally dynamic city with hemispheric reach.”

“Some fled persecution and fear of persecution. However, increasing numbers of Cubans fled the nationalization of businesses, schools, country clubs, and the like, which deprived the upper and middle classes of their livelihood and lifestyle.”

“Because Cubans who fled to the United States after Castro took power refer to themselves as exiles, so do I, in deference to their self-identity. Some of them indeed fled because they felt that their lives were at risk. Many others, however, fled for economic reasons, to take advantage of economic opportunities in the United States and to preserve a lifestyle that the revolution threatened.”

“If the United States only reluctantly and belatedly admitted Jewish refugees who fled persecution during World War II, the Eisenhower administration was quick to imagine Cubans as refugees, even when their lifestyle but not lives were at risk. Less than half of the Cubans that the United States admitted had fled persecution, the near-universally recognized criterion for refugee status....”

“Most Cubans received benefits as ‘imagined refugees,’ that is, as persons who successive administrations defined as refugees so that they could qualify for entitlements for which they otherwise could not, and who, as imagined, qualified for more benefits even than ‘real refugees,’ that is, persons who had fled persecution or likely persecution, the near-universally agreed definition of refugees. No other immigrants, or even native-born people in need, received comparable entitlements to the incoming Cubans.”

“President Eisenhower singled them out for special entitlements. His successor, President John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, singled out more Cubans for special entitlements and expanded entitlements for them. Both presidents hoped that, in reaching out to Cubans, they would convince those who remained on the island of the superiority of capitalist democracy over Castro’s nationalist, populist, and increasingly state-dominated Marxist-Leninist Soviet-allied regime. They also hoped to induce a ‘brain drain’ that would debilitate the Cuban economy to the point of collapse. Meanwhile, they turned to incoming Cubans to assist covert efforts to oust Castro and contain his influence over other Third World countries, especially in America’s ‘backyard.’ They even invested in training Cuban arrivals for leadership positions in a US-friendly post-Castro government.”

“The Kennedy administration even allowed Cubans to use backdated visas. If backdated, the visas appeared valid because the denoted date preceded the embassy shutdown, when the United States still issued visas. The Kennedy administration accordingly permitted immigration fraud to admit Cubans.”

“The United States Coast Guard and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) further conspired to admit Cubans. They facilitated entry of Cubans who had not been pre-screened and pre-approved abroad for admission. Following orders, members of the Coast Guard helped unauthorized Cubans they picked up at sea come ashore, at the same time that they blocked other visa-less boatpeople from U.S. entry.”

“The Kennedy administration also financed the transport of Cubans to the United States, at American taxpayers’ expense. It did so when the Cuban government imposed financial obstacles to Cuban departures.”

“By the time the United States “won” the Cold War, with the Soviet Union’s collapse, Cuban immigrants who had been beneficiaries of earlier entitlements had become so politically influential that they pressed for continued privileging of ‘their people.’

“Domestic politics replaced foreign policy as the driver of privileging Cubans. Even presidents who tried to end special entitlements for Cubans reversed their stance in response to pressure from Cuban immigrants who, in increased numbers, made use of their unique path to citizenship, with accompanying voting rights, for ethnic gain.”

“After initially opposing the onslaught of unauthorized Cuban boatpeople, [President Jimmy] Carter welcomed approximately 125,000 of them. He built on past privileging of Cubans.”

”Cubans were even imagined as refugees after initially being determined not to be refugees, and in the absence of new evidence demonstrating that they had fled persecution. President Reagan was shown to have reimagined Mariel Cubans as refugees after President Carter determined them not to meet the criteria for refugee status. President Reagan reimagined them as refugees in order to enable them to become lawful permanent residents, and to woo them to become Republican Party stalwarts on attaining citizenship, with voting rights.”

“President Reagan also helped transform Cuban Americans into a political force in their own right, able to independently influence US Cuba policy. Cuban immigration policy, as a result, subsequently became rooted in domestic politics.”

“Had U.S. immigration policy been premised on fairness, then Haitians would have been better treated. They sought refuge from worse poverty, worse violence, and, in the main, worse persecution than Cubans, although there certainly were Cubans who suffered persecution.”

“The U.S. privileging of Cubans and disprivileging of Haitians point to continued country-based racial biases in American immigration policy since the omnibus 1965 immigration reform officially ended such practices. The Haitian experience reveals persistent, pernicious racial discrimination in the United States’ admissions system. In turn, the Cuban experience points to continued preferential treatment of light-skinned foreigners.”

“Both the Executive Branch and Congress should use their respective authority to make immigration policy more equitable. People from no country should be privileged over others, especially after the conditions that may have justified privileging cease to exist. By the same token, people from no country should be singled out for discriminatory treatment, as have Haitians.”

“There is no justification for the continued extension of unique rights of Cubans to welfare and to lawful permanent residency when entering the United States without authorization. The CAA [Cuban Adjustment Act] illustrates the difficulty of sunsetting legislation that is enacted without an expiration date. Despite ongoing criticism of the CAA, and efforts of some legislators to sunset it, it has remained in effect for over half a century.”