Obama gives one last gift to Raul Castro

Obama gives one last gift to Raul Castro | Opinion
Guillermo I. Martinez
Columnist

Obama shows he cares little for human rights in Cuba.

President Barack Obama's decision to terminate the "wet foot, dry foot"
policy that allowed Cubans who reached the United States legal status
was one last gift to Cuban President Raúl Castro.

For the last two years the Obama administration, led by Cuba specialist
Ben Rhodes, has been finding ways to improve relations with Cuba,
without asking anything in return.

This last gift, however, was icing on the cake. It not only gave Castro
something he had been clamoring for, but also hurt tens of thousands of
Cubans already embarked on a journey to America.

Let me be absolutely clear. Sooner or later, the wet foot, dry foot
policy had to end. The Cubans arriving the last few years were not
political refugees, nor were they fleeing persecution from the
government. They were coming to the United States, like the vast
majority of people from other Latin American countries, seeking a better
life.

That alone was grounds to do what Obama did. But the way he did it was
despicable.

Thousands of those who arrived here went back to Cuba after visiting
relatives — some who made arrangements with friends to cash their Social
Security checks and send them the money to live in Cuba.

There is no doubt these abuses could not be tolerated.

Yet there were thousands of recent arrivals who came here and started
working, paying taxes and acclimating themselves to life in the United
States.

The biggest problem with the new Obama policy was the way it was
implemented. This is the way dictators rule, not the way a democracy works.

In a democracy laws are announced ahead of time and people are given
time to adapt the new rules. Not this one. The rule was announced last
Thursday and by 4 p.m. that same day Cubans were being detained at
different ports of entry.

On the frontier between Mexico and the United States, there was a Cuban
in line and was allowed in at 3:59. The one next in line was turned away.

At the airport, customs and immigrations officials were questioning
older Cubans who had a visa and had come to visit relatives if they were
going to stay in the United States. The questions were asked in a way
that these elderly Cubans said they had come to stay with their
relatives. That answer earned them a trip to a detention center in
Broward County.

President Obama should be ashamed of what he has done. Re-establishing
relations with a country where human rights are violated with regularity
is an indication he doesn't give a hoot about human rights.

Yes, Mr. Obama: Black Lives Matter. But so do the lives of Cubans. Your
presidency, particularly in the last two years, has been an
embarrassment to anyone who says they believe in human rights.

You defended the rights of immigrants from other countries and then
corralled and expelled those who came from Cuba.

The question I have is simply: Why? Wouldn't it have been just as easy
to say that the law passed would prohibit new Cubans from fleeing the
island with the ultimate goal of coming to the United States. You could
have said that, after a given date, no one who left Cuba would be allowed in

There are thousands of Cubans who, after selling everything they had in
Cuba, have traveled to Latin American countries — some as far as Ecuador
— to then travel by foot through Colombia, Panama, Central America and
Mexico so they could present themselves to American immigration agents
and be allowed in the country.

Is a law that leaves thousands of people in limbo humane? Fair? Do you,
President Obama, care about what happens to these people?

Your legacy will show you cared little for the human rights of Cubans.
You have done all this with executive orders, closely stepping around
the Cuban Adjustment Act and the Helms-Burton Law that imposed an
embargo on Cuba.

I, for one, will be happy to see you leave the White House.

Guillermo I Martinez lives in South Florida. Email: guimar123@gmail.com

Source: Obama gives one last gift to Raul Castro | Opinion - Sun
Sentinel -
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/commentary/fl-gmcol-obama-cuba-20170117-column.html