Thanks for sharing your story, bystander. Do you think your father would support the implication that we only look for immigrants from countries like the US? In today's world, your father would be a "deport" candidate. Of course, the Cubans were the reason Trump won Florida so they may not be a target like other sh!thole countries.
I'm not completely up on the context of Trump's alleged ****-hole comment but my Father was invited to the US by Florida State. He was recruited by one of their star gymnasts after they met at the Olympics. I don't know all the facts of that conversation but in theory, he was "desirable" to someone in the US. He remained and followed the legal path to citizenship.
I think in general my Father understood the need for an immigration policy which by its very existence implies, obviously or not, that some will be allowed in and some won't. He fully supported our policy of allowing Cubans in due to the oppression occurring in Cuba. It was a policy of safe harbor for political persecution. In my view, he would also have extended that policy to refugees of North Korea and any other citizen of a totalitarian nation that violates the most fundamental civil rights imaginable. In this regard, these people are being given most-favored status not because they are from countries like the US but instead because they are from countries wholly opposite of the US; true tyranny. And by extension, that would also cover Middle Eastern refugees in the middle of a civil war or being subjected to the horrors inflicted by ISIS.
But these are academic discussions. From some brief research I believe that immigrants from Europe who arrived at Ellis Island long ago were not all allowed in to the US. Some were sent back for a variety of reasons, all of which could be categorized under one general heading; undesirable. So it's nothing new to want to crack down today.
Would he consider what is happening today to be racist? Certainly to a degree. I think there is no doubt that there is an element in the US that greatly fears the culture of Mexico becoming too dominant here. That the loyalty to Mexico and its ways is very real. I believe that to a certain extent myself. But I think that is just an acknowledgment of a fact (the loyalty and cultural bias towards Mexico). What we must decide is if we care or not. Not about illegal immigration but instead about the cultural dilution and the clear possibility that what the US is, is not a true melting pot of a singular culture but instead a melting pot that can change it's flavor and color.
But he was a staunch supporter in general of an immigration policy similar to that which he followed. He came over before Castro's revolution. He was not a beneficiary of the special status Cuban's gained because of the oppression of Castro.
Interestingly, I had a Liberal who knew all of this about me and my family ask me what I would think if Cuban's were treated like everyone else. I was making arguments about enforcing our immigration laws (years before Trump became President, just like Bill Clinton made speeches in favor of strict enforcement) and this Liberal was trying to test my loyalties. He thought I was having it both ways; demanding strict enforcement while benefiting from the special Cuban policy. It took some of the starch out of his argument when I relayed that my Father came over prior to Castro's take-over. I also told him that and I am stating here for the record that I do not expect special favors for Cubans. I only am of the belief that political prisoners/refugees have historically had exemptions or a separate set of rules, just like someone who is picked up by a ship because they were drowning in the ocean.
It is also my understanding that many Jews were turned away during WWII. I don't know why. Certainly we knew about what was happening to them in Germany. Maybe that's why we were wholly supportive of the establishment of the nation of Israel (besides the Dominionist/Rapturist believers) in 1948 because the Jewish question was dominating the world's conscience at the time.
Immigration. Immigration. We need laws. We should enforce them.
I hope this is coherent. I get on a roll sometimes and my brain is all over the place.
