President George Bush and his supporters on the far right anguish needlessly about the millions of undocumented workers in the United States. Why? Because the Pinar del Rio solution is close at hand.
Briefly stated, this policy provides that the hundreds of workers that are regularly swept up in raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement merely need to state that they are refugees from Cuba, regardless of their actual country of origin. More specifically, the undocumented workers should state that they worked in the tobacco fields of Pinar del Rio, and that they got to the United States in refugee boat lifts.
As Cuban refugees who have actually landed on U. S. soil, the undocumented workers will be entitled to stay. ICE officials who dispute their story will be in the difficult position of proving a negative—that they did not come from Cuba, but rather from some other country. But which one? Mexico? Guatemala? El Salvador? Honduras? Canada?
As long as the undocumented workers stick to their story, the worst that can happen is that they will be placed in detention centers. But as the ranks of detainees swell by thousands every week, the detention centers will increasingly resemble concentration camps. Even Bush, with his limited knowledge of history, knows we don’t want to go down that road.
So relax. The undocumented workers are not actually “lawbreakers,” regardless of what the far right says. They are here merely to earn money for their families. By the way, it might be a good idea for you to brush up on your Spanish.
Tags:
cuba, cuban refugees, day workers, hispanics, ice, illegal aliens, immigration, immigration policy
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