The Mariel Boatlift

 

 

 

 

"Longer boats are coming to win us
They're coming to win us, they're coming to win us
Longer boats are coming to win us
Hold on to the shore, they'll be taking the key from the door"

 

Cat Stevens

Longer Boats 

Way back when, under the presidency of Jimmy Carter, we had an interesting immigration issue called the Mariel Boat lift. It was yet one more example on how this good hearted, very naive man was danced around the "May Pole" - this time by Fidel Castro. For those my age who may have forgotten this event, or those younger who never heard of it, I will tell the story.

This story is being told because it will show just how confused  and broken our immigration policy has been for years. Jimmy Carter, a "transformational" Democratic President such as the one we have now, really wanted to improve some thorny international relations that existed after years of the evil Richard Nixon and the hapless Gerry Ford. President Carter was going to make nice with our old nemesis, Fidel Castro. The Carter Administration established some rudimentary diplomatic avenues with Cuba. An Olive Branch was to consider letting more Cubans into the country as refugee immigrants.

In 1980, by mutual agreement between the Carter Administration and the very corrupt government in Cuba, refugees started getting in boats from the Mariel Harbor in Cuba to journey to the United States. In the very native mind of Jimmy Carter, this would bring many tearful reunions between families who had been separated for decades. It was such the right thing to do. However, in Cuba, knowing they were dealing with an ideologue, the government knew they could "clean out the drain". Among the 125,000 Cubans which came to the United States in 1980, many were from jails and mental institutions. Rather than getting thousands of hard working Cubans who could help our economy, we also received thousands of people with criminal backgrounds or mental issues. By the time we realized what had happened, the "genie was out of the bottle".

There were many times that Jimmy Carter was "played", both in his one term as President and later when Bill Clinton would send him to the world's trouble spots. It is good to brush up on our immigration history (such as this event) before we set about to have some kind of blanket amnesty for our current immigration problem. Many on both sides feel this current problem can be solved without doing something foolish and regrettable such that we did in 1980. Because it has now been 33 years, many memories of this event have faded. Mine has not. 

Don't get me wrong - many of the folks that came here in 1980 have been a plus to our country. The Cuban people that I have known are very hard working, honest people. No matter who want to immigrate here and from what country, needs to be vetted. It is the smart, it is the right thing to do. Failure to do so will keep a very broken immigration system very broken.