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CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
Bill puts Cuban migrants at risk of
return
Advocates hope to strike
language from a terrorism bill in Congress
that could eliminate the wet-foot/ dry-foot
provision for Cuban migrants.
By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com.
Posted on Thu, Oct. 07, 2004.
WASHINGTON - A proposed bill aimed at terrorists
could drastically change rules for undocumented
migrants and place Cuban refugees at risk
of being sent back to their homeland even
if they make it onto U.S. soil.
The lengthy Recommendations Implementation
Act, born from suggestions by the 9/11 Commission
to keep terrorists out of the country, could
make it to the House floor for a vote as
early as today.
Immigrant advocates and several lawmakers
are pushing for an amendment that would
strike worrisome language affecting immigrants
and essentially eliminate a 10-year-old
policy -- known as wet-foot/dry-foot --
which allows most Cubans who make it to
U.S. soil to remain in the country. The
same policy permits only those Cubans interdicted
at sea to be returned to Cuba.
''We want to make sure it is the terrorists
who we are keeping out and not the immigrants
who need our protection,'' said Florida
Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who co-sponsored
the amendment.
The fate of the proposed amendment remained
unknown because negotiations on the final
text continued late Wednesday. The rules
committee for the House will determine whether
an amendment will even be allowed.
At issue are three specific provisions
that would permit:
o The expedited removal of undocumented
immigrants who have not been in the country
for at least five years or do not meet the
credible fear of persecution criteria.
o Additional requirements, such as paperwork
from homelands, that would prove persecution
took place. Advocates say documents, such
as police reports in rape cases, are nearly
impossible to obtain.
o The deportation of immigrants to the
same countries where they have suffered
persecution.
''This isn't going to make America safer,''
said Erin Corcoran, staff attorney for Human
Rights First, an advocacy organization in
Washington. "The people [this bill]
is targeting are not the people who are
going to do us harm.''
If the House version is approved without
changes, it would go to conference committee
to hash out differences with a Senate version
of the bill, which does not contain the
three provisions. That Senate bill had not
been approved by late Wednesday.
Kerry blasts Powell over Castro remark
Sen. John Kerry called
''shocking'' Secretary of State Colin Powell's
comment that Fidel Castro is only a problem
to Cuba.
By Lesley Clark. lclark@herald.com.
Posted on Thu, Oct. 07, 2004.
Seeking to gain inroads within the critical
bloc of Cuban American voters, Sen. John
Kerry on Wednesday immediately pounced on
remarks made by Secretary of State Colin
Powell that suggested Fidel Castro is a
problem for Cuba, not "the rest of
the hemisphere.''
Powell's remarks came as he traveled to
Brazil this week, and was asked by a reporter
about criticism from Latin American leaders
who accuse the United States of "seeing
their problems through the lens of Cuba.''
''We don't see everything through the lens
of Fidel Castro,'' Powell replied according
to a transcript of his remarks posted on
the department's website. "Fidel Castro
is a problem for the Cuban people. I don't
view him as that much of a problem for the
rest of the hemisphere. Certainly not the
way he was when I was national security
advisor -- 15 years ago . . .''
QUICK TO RESPOND
Kerry, whose campaign hopes to siphon even
a sliver of the reliably Republican voting
bloc from President Bush, rapidly assailed
the remarks, calling it "shocking that
the Bush administration is telling the world
that Fidel Castro no longer poses a problem
for this hemisphere.
''Fidel Castro is a tyrant who brutally
oppresses the Cuban people,'' Kerry said
in a statement. "Castro's Cuba is the
last bastion of communism in our region
and a major obstacle to the triumph of democracy
in this hemisphere.''
The Bush campaign referred calls to the
White House and a spokesman could not immediately
be reached.
NOT THE FIRST CLASH
A senior state department official said
that Powell ''chaired a presidential commission
that makes freedom in Cuba a national priority
for the first time,'' adding that Bush had
implemented tough travel restrictions against
the island nation.
Bush and Kerry have clashed before over
Cuba. Bush this year has sought to shore
up his support among Cuban American voters
by cracking down on money and travel to
the island, criticizing Kerry for taking
a soft stance on Cuba.
Kerry has criticized Bush's new travel
policy as harmful to families, seeking to
attract moderate Cuban voters.
Herald staff writer Pablo Bachelet contributed
to this report.
Cheney visits Miami, says Bush will
hold firm on restrictions on Cuba travel
By Lesley Clark. lclark@herald.com.
Posted on Thu, Oct. 07, 2004.
Vice president Dick Cheney continued his
post-debate campaign swing today with a
townhall meeting in Miami, arguing that
a new report that found no evidence that
Iraq produced weapons of mass destruction
nevertheless proves that President Bush
was right to go to war in Iraq.
Democrats have pointed to the new report
by the top U.S. arms inspector to buttress
their argument that Bush rushed to war without
waiting for international sanctions against
Iraq to work.
But Cheney said the report makes it clear
that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein sorely
wanted to get international sanctions lifted
so he could re-launch his weapons program.
''If the sanctions had been lifted, he
would have been back in business,'' Cheney
said. "He had every intention of going
back to business as usual. Delay, defer
and wait just wasn't an option. The president
did the right thing.''
Cheney said the report also suggested that
Hussein manipulated the United Nation's
oil-for-food program to avoid the effect
of the sanctions.
Hussein was ''trying to buy support from
outside countries so they would support
lifting sanctions,'' Cheney said. "The
notion that we could have waited and not
done anything doesn't make any sense.''
The enthusiastic audience at the Radisson
Mart Plaza Hotel and Convention Center saved
its loudest applause for Cheney's promise
that Bush would veto any legislation that
attempts to water down his new Cuba policy,
which restricts travel to the island to
once every three years.
In response to a question from the audience,
Cheney noted that there is ''an effort in
Congress'' to prevent the White House from
carrying out the travel restrictions. Despite
threats of a veto, the U.S. House voted
two weeks ago to prevent funding to carry
out the new restrictions.
''The president has made it very clear
any bill that interferes with his Cuba policies
will be vetoed,'' Cheney said as some in
the audience rose to their feet.
U.S. Defends Denying Visas to 67 Cubans
Barry Schweid, Associated
Press. Posted on Thu, Oct. 07, 2004.
WASHINGTON - The government on Thursday
defended its decision to keep 67 Cuban scholars
from attending a conference in Las Vegas.
The Cubans are government officials whose
aim was to "spout the party line,"
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher
said.
"It's the State Department's view
that Cuban officials should not travel freely
within the United States" and one way
to bring pressure on the Cuban government
is to deny them to ability to travel in
the United States, Boucher said.
The Latin American Studies Association
annual meeting began Thursday. A protest
was expected Friday against the denial of
visas to the Cubans.
Cuban scholars have participated for years.
Last year, about 100 Cubans took part.
Reps. William Delahunt, D-Mass., and Jeff
Flake, R-Ariz., asked Secretary of State
Colin Powell to reconsider the decision.
They were turned down.
"We do not believe that the way to
encourage democracy in other countries is
to close our border to their scholars,"
the lawmakers wrote. They said this was
the first time in 25 years the U.S. government
has blocked all invited Cuban scholars from
the conference.
Boucher said all Cuban academics are government
officials. "As far as I am aware, none
of these individuals has distinguished him
or herself for free thinking and for questioning
anything the regime has said."
The university system in Cuba is run by
the government and the academics are government
officials "who wanted to enjoy the
hospitality of the United States and spread
the party line," Boucher said.
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