|
'Wet foot, dry foot' policy doesn't work
Daily Mining Gazette, March 9, 2006.
In a bizarre, Faustian bargain with Fidel Castro, the Clinton administration imposed a policy known as "wet foot, dry foot" concerning escapees from Castro's dictatorship: Those who manage to reach U.S. soil can stay, but those found at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard are returned to Cuba to face certain persecution and possible political imprisonment. A federal court case decided last week begs the question of whether the U.S. government will abandon this patently immoral policy.
In January, Elizabeth Hernandez, 22, and her 2-year-old son were among 15 Cubans who sought to escape Castro's regime by boat. As they neared the Florida Keys the rickety boat began to sink. They made it as far as the old Seven Mile Bridge, which once connected the Keys.
But in an Orwellian interpretation of the Clinton-era order, the Coast Guard determined that since the remains of the abandoned bridge do not connect to land, Hernandez and her fellow refugees were technically still at sea. The entire party therefore was whisked back to Cuba before any legal challenge could be mounted.
The case proceeded nonetheless. Last week, Judge Federico Moreno ruled in favor of the refugees and ordered the government to make a good-faith effort to retrieve them from Cuba. That, of course, would require Fidel Castro's cooperation, which is exceedingly unlikely. The Bush administration should press the case nonetheless.
And the White House should do one other thing that would prevent the Coast Guard from acting as Fidel's border guards in the future: End "wet foot, dry foot," and simply declare that every Cuban has a fundamental human right to freedom. During the Cold War it would have been unthinkable to turn back anyone who managed to get past the Berlin Wall. The same principles should apply to the Florida Straits.
| 
