Miami Beach, FL, December 13, 2022 --  

Mass migration of Cubans to South Florida is permanently altering the state and U.S. immigration policy.

As the largest wave of Cuban migrants in history surges into the United States, tensions in South Florida are high.  Last Friday, protesters and activists gathered to condemn a speech by the author of a book claiming Cuban immigrants "privileged" status should be ended¹

The protest at Florida International University in Miami was in a city dominated by Cuban-Americans. By many accounts, the city now has an absolute majority of Cubans, with the larger Miami-Dade county home to 700,000 people of Cuban ancestry out of a total population of about two million. This dominance is poised to grow, as a record 224,000 Cubans have streamed over the border in the past year, according to encounter statistics from U.S Customs and Border Protection ending in October. Many if not most of these Cuban migrants are likely to settle in South Florida.

Miami's Mayor Francis Suarez is the son of Cuban immigrants, one of whom is a former Mayor and current county commissioner. His colleagues and fellow son of Cuban migrants, Trump-endorsed city commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera, denounced the university's decision to invite the author. He said that it is insulting to host a discussion of Cuban privilege in a city dominated by those who fled the communist island.

It's not hard to understand why Miami Cubans would be suspicious of the author, Professor Susan Eckstein of Boston University. A non-Latina liberal white lady comes down from New England to school Miami on Cuban migration. Excerpts from her book "Cuban Privilege: The Making of Immigrant Inequality in America," were published by the Miami Herald that only added fuel to the fire: "Increasing numbers of Cubans fled the nationalization of businesses, schools, country clubs, and the like, which deprived the upper and middle classes of their livelihood and lifestyle."² Such comments may be based in truth, but they sound like a conversation between dreamy-eyed New England eggheads some of whom still see Marxist Cuba as an attractive social model. The attitude underlying such comments understandably enrages those who fled hardships on the island.

Yet while Eckstein may be a poor messenger, much of her message is correct. Cubans do have enormous advantages in the U.S. immigration system. The largest advantage comes from the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, which allows any Cuban legally present in the United States for one year and one day to apply for permanent residency and a green card. No other national group shares this advantage with Cubans.

How this works in practice is easy to see for those mass numbers of Cubans arriving over the past year. Once entering the United States legally or illegally (over the Mexican border on on a boat to South Florida), Cuban migrants surrender to federal officers and request asylum. While many may be eligible for asylum, it usually doesn't matter. As of May, the average time to go through the process to a successful grant was nearly three years.³ So all most Cubans have to do is run out the clock -- 366 days after being getting "parole" for the asylum process, they can legally stay forever. No other group, not Venezuelans, Haitians, nor Afghans, has this advantage.

To be fair, this advantage isn't omnipotent. On rare occasions, the asylum process completes within a year, or special circumstances prevent Cubans from declaring asylum. As of July, 35,000 Cubans in the United States have been ordered deported⁴, many waiting since the last deportation flight nearly two years ago. But this is a relatively small percentage given that hundreds of thousands have immigrated over that period. Other groups fare much more poorly. Consider that in May alone, 4,000 Haitians were deported on 36 flights.⁵

The Cuban advantage in the immigration system originated in Cold War-era policies when the island was an ally of the Soviet Union. Since the Soviet collapse, the hefty political clout of Florida Cubans have kept the system going. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but such advantages are certainly unfair to migrants from other countries with similarly desperate conditions. Some migrants, like those from Venezuela, are also fleeing a repressive socialist dictatorship. Why should they be turned back when the Cubans are not?

To see the difference in practice, look no further than Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' September stunt where he airlifted 48 Venezuelan immigrants from San Antonio through Florida to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.⁶ It is no accident that not a single passenger was recruited from Cuba, despite the fact that far more Cubans than Venezuelans surged over the borders last year (224,000 vs. 189,000 according to Customs and Border Protection).⁷ When it comes to enforcement, the political clout of Miami Cubans, who have turned Florida from a purple swing state to a reliably Trumpist Republican red state, earn them the informal protection of those in power.

Given the surge in Cuban arrivals this year, that power is bound to grow. Cuban's immigration advantage, much like the Cubans themselves, appear to be here to stay.

Related Web Columns:

Finding a Way Around, September 6, 2022

Cuba's White Flight, August 23, 2022

Breathtaking Determination, October 26, 2021

Notes:

1. Miami Herald, Book Discussion at FIU Turns Into Emotional Rebuke of Claims That Cubans are Not Exiles, December 9, 2022

2. Miami Herald, Book About 'Cuban Privilege' Stirs Controversy in Miami. Read What It Says, Dec 9, 2022

3. American Immigration Council, Asylum in the United States, August 16, 2022

4. Pozo Goldstein, More Than 35,000 Cubans May Be Deported, July 23, 2022

5. NBC News Number of Haitians Deported Plunged in June as More Are Allowed to Seek Asylum, July 7, 2022

6. New York Times, The Story Behind DeSantis’s Migrant Flights to Martha’s Vineyard, October 4, 2022

7. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Nationwide Encounters, Fiscal Year 2022, as posted December 13, 2022