Cuban exile activist Ramón Saúl Sánchez: a man with no country

Cuban exile activist Ramón Saúl Sánchez: a man with no country
PATRICK FARRELL pfarrell@miamiherald.com
ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@elnuevoherald.com

When Ramón Saúl Sánchez arrived at Miami International Airport on a
flight from Cuba almost 50 years ago, he was just 12 years old,
traveling with his younger brother.

On arrival, immigration officials gave both Cuban youths "parole"
documents enabling them to stay in the United States as refugees.

Little did they know that the parole documents would later play a
pivotal role in the life of one of them, Ramón, who recently joined the
ranks of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country
after his original arrival parole document either expired or was
revoked. In a surprising letter Sánchez received last week, the federal
immigration agency also informed him that his 2002 application for
residency was denied and asked him to pack his bags and leave the
country "as soon as possible."

Though his Miami immigration attorney, Wilfredo Allen, believes that
eventually his client will be granted residence under the Cuban
Adjustment Act, Sánchez told el Nuevo Herald Wednesday that if all else
fails he will leave the United States and return to Cuba — regardless of
the consequences.

"If at the end of the day I have to leave this country, which I love
deeply, I will leave, loving it like I always loved it, perhaps loving
it even more, but I will not go to a third country," Sánchez said at his
Miami-based office. "I will leave from here to Cuba."

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency that
sent the letter, issued a brief statement Wednesday.

"As a matter of policy, USCIS does not comment on individual cases," the
statement said. "Generally speaking, parolees from Cuba may be eligible
for legal permanent residence (green card) after spending one year in
the United States, per the Cuban Adjustment Act. However, if an
individual from Cuba does not apply for status based on this
legislation, other factors may come into play."

Sánchez — now 62 — is one of the most prominent leaders in the exile
community, frequently staging hunger strikes, street rallies, or boat
flotillas off the coast of Cuba demanding democracy and human rights on
the island.

As president of the Miami-based Democracy Movement, he is a familiar
face, not only across South Florida — particularly on the streets of
Little Havana and Hialeah — but also on an international level, where
Sánchez has been honored for shedding light on human rights abuses in Cuba.

So it was all the more remarkable that the federal government, which for
decades had gone out of its way to maintain a friendly and supportive
relationship with the Cuban exile community, would suddenly give the
impression of betraying one of its leaders. To many, the letter asking
Sánchez to leave the country was seen as further evidence that the
Barack Obama administration was now siding with the Raúl Castro government.

After all, it was President Obama who unilaterally ordered the
restoration of relations with Cuba and who, in March, traveled to Havana
to meet with Cuban government officials as well as dissidents, opening a
new era in relations between the Communist-ruled island and the United
States — no longer only listening to the views of the Cuban exile community.

The USCIS letter sparked widespread rejection among prominent
Cuban-Americans who came to Sánchez's defense — from federal lawmakers
like Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart, to Florida Lt.
Gov. Carlos López-Cantera — all of whom condemned the action.

Yet, the Sánchez issue did not emerge in a vacuum.

Sánchez deliberately refused to ask for permanent residency for many
years because he wanted to retain his Cuban status so that he could
easily return to his homeland should political conditions on the island
veer toward democracy.

"I always feared that if I became a U.S. citizen, the Cuban government
would say 'you are not Cuban, so why do we have to listen to you?',"
said Sánchez.

I ALWAYS FEARED THAT IF I BECAME A U.S. CITIZEN, THE CUBAN GOVERNMENT
WOULD SAY 'YOU ARE NOT CUBAN, SO WHY DO WE HAVE TO LISTEN TO YOU?

His staunch refusal to enter the American system either as a resident or
a citizen became much more complicated after the Sept. 11, 2001
terrorist attacks.

In the fallout from the attacks, foreign nationals who had no papers or
who had not become lawful permanent residents or U.S. citizens had
difficulty obtaining driver licenses or state and federal benefits and
had trouble persuading law enforcement about their identity.

This is not the first time that Sánchez has run into trouble with
immigration officials over his parole document. In 2003, he was briefly
detained by immigration agents on suspicion of being in the country
illegally. Eventually, Sánchez concluded he could continue to live here
on the basis of his indefinite parole document.

Sánchez got the parole into the U.S. when he was processed as an
arriving Cuban refugee at the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami on May 19,
1967. He was 12.

He said his father sent him and his brother to the United States so they
could avoid the Cuban military draft.

Sánchez enrolled in school and, after classes, worked in a small grocery
store. After a few years, Sánchez joined exile militant groups that
believed in using violent means to fight the Cuban regime.

In the 1980s, he served 4 1/2 years in prison after refusing to testify
before a grand jury in a case involving the armed militant organization
Omega 7.

After being released from prison, Sánchez transformed himself into a
non-violent anti-Castro activist, eventually staging rallies seeking
democracy in Cuba and opposing U.S. government policies that he saw as
favoring the Cuban government.

As leader of the Democracy Movement, Sánchez led boat flotillas to
international waters near the island to protest the Castro regime. He
was planning to lead such a flotilla over the weekend, just after he
received the immigration agency letter. The flotilla sailed without him.

As a result, Sánchez and his attorneys believe the letter may have been
politically-motivated to thwart his anti-Castro activities at a time
relations with Cuba have improved.

Sánchez said his attorneys have come up with a three-pronged strategy to
respond to the U.S. residence denial. They plan to ask the immigration
service to reopen and reconsider the denial, file a new residence
petition under the Cuban Adjustment Act or seek federal court protection.

"But if all else fails, I will ask the United States to allow me to sail
from here aboard a simple, totally unarmed boat to return to the waters
of my country and there face death by firing squad, or jail, or whatever
the consequences may be."

Source: Cuban exile activist Ramón Saúl Sánchez: a man with no country |
In Cuba Today - http://www.incubatoday.com/news/article72936267.html