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1 results

  • 4 - Delinking Cubans from Haitians

  • Susan Eva Eckstein, Boston University
  • Book:
    Cuban Privilege
    Published online:
    19 May 2022
    Print publication:
    02 June 2022, pp 127-181

  • Summary

    Reagan, who won the 1980 Presidential election despite (and because of) outreach to Cuban immigrants, inherited the unresolved problem of the long-term rights of the new Haitian and Cuban immigrants. He responded by extending permanent residency rights to the Cubans but not to the Haitians: by (re)imagining the Cubans as refugees in the absence of evidence that they fled persecution. By conceiving immigrants as refugees, Reagan circumvented admission restrictions set by Congress. He also mobilized Cuban émigrés to suppress Leftist movements then challenging US hegemony in Central America, and allotted federal funds to transform Cubans into domestic lobbyists, well positioned to influence US policy when the Cold War ended under the George H. W. Bush Presidency. The two presidents granted Cuban Americans the unique right to admit Cuban immigrants. At the same time, they turned viciously on Haitians trying to flee violence and persecution in their homeland. The two presidents also reestablished the pre-Carter practice of blocking Haitians from US entry, and detaining and deporting those who managed to make it ashore.