Biden's DHS Sec: Cubans Fleeing Persecution By Boat Won't Be Allowed Into the U.S.

Brittany M. Hughes | July 14, 2021
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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has reportedly vowed that Cubans fleeing their nation’s oppressive communist regime by boat won’t be allowed into the United States – even if they can establish a well-founded fear of persecution.

“Allow me to be clear: if you take to the sea, you will not come to the United States,” Mayorkas said Tuesday.

The Washington Post reports Mayorkas pledged that Cubans – along with Haitians fleeing their own politically-embroiled nation – caught trying to get to the U.S. via boat will be sent back to their home countries, unless they can establish a “well-founded fear of persecution or torture.” Even then, those persons will be resettled in a third country instead of being admitted into the United States, with Mayorkas vowing that “They will not enter the United States.”
 


For many years, countless Cubans have attempted to reach the United States via boat, risking the dangerous journey across choppy waters to flee the widespread political and economic oppression at the hands of the communist dictatorship that has wrecked the once-prosperous island nation. Just this past week, U.S. Coast Guard officials report nearly 20 Cubans have died trying to get to the U.S. by sea.

This latest announcement by the Biden administration vowing to turn potential refugees away comes as thousands of angry Cubans have taken to the streets of Havana and other Cuban cities and towns to protest the poverty, starvation and lack of medical care wrought by the absolute failure that is their communist government.

The administration’s pledge not to allow Cubans into the U.S. – even those who may meet the legal definition of a “refugee” – is also particularly interesting given the fact that Cubans fleeing political persecution at the hands of a violent communist regime better meet the lawful standard for refugee status than the tens of thousands of illegal aliens from Central American fleeing poverty by crossing the Southwest U.S. border unlawfully – and who the administration has been all-too-willing to admit, turning many loose without even so much as a notice to appear in court. CBS reports the Biden administration has already admitted 11,000 asylum-seekers who had been forced to remain in Mexico by the Trump administration pending their immigration hearings. That's on top of the thousands of families and unaccompanied minors who've been allowed into the country, with some even bypassing overcrowded detention facilities before being turned loose into the country with a bus or a plane ticket and instructions to contact an immigration attorney and set up their own asylum hearing once they reach their destination.

Some critics speculate the difference in immigration enforcement is largely due to the fact that most Cuban-Americans identify as Republican, in part because of their strong aversion to the socialist economic policies that have already driven them from their homeland, but which have become increasingly favorable with the American left.

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