Migration from Cuba to the United States since Castro assumed power, and the characterization of those leaving as refugees, have been strongly affected by U.S. foreign policy concerns. During the 1959-62 migration wave, particularly prior to the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, Cubans were welcomed as temporary exiles, likely to topple Castro and return home. The second major migration wave began in 1965, in the midst of a U.S. campaign for systematically isolating and economically depriving Cuba and its citizens. When thousands of those citizens left Cuba, primarily to improve their economic circumstances and rejoin family members, they were welcomed as refugees because of the symbolic value of their rejection of Latin America's only communist state. The third migration wave occurred in 1980, after a decade of detente and gradually improving U.S.-Cuban relations. It served no clear U.S. foreign policy ends and was perceived as helping Cuba rid itself of undesirables. Consequently those arriving received little public support.
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References
1.
1. Virginia Dominguez, From Neighbor to Stranger: The Dilemma of the Caribbean Peoples in the United States (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1975), p. 21.
2.
2. “The effort to assassinate Castro began in 1960 and continued until 1965.” U.S. Congress, Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1978), p. 255. Over 100 pages of the report are devoted to CIA involvement in at least eight assassination attempts initiated during this period.
3.
3. White House Press Release, 27 Apr. 1980, Bulletin of the Department of State, 80(2039):68 (June 1980).
4.
U.S., Congress, Senate, Report on the Refugee Act of 1980, Senate Report no. 256, 96th Cong., 2d sess., 1980; and various documents of the Cuban Refugee Assistance Program, included in Carlos E. Cortes, ed., Cuban Refugee Programs (New York: Arno Press, 1980).
5.
For the view that security screening should have been more exacting, see Marion T. Bennett, American Immigration Policies: A History (Washington, DC: Public Affairs Press, 1963), pp. 204-206.
6.
6. According to one source, “U.S. authorities have taken unusual steps to facilitate the entry of disaffected Cubans, even going so far as to allow the majority to enter without visas. No other potential exile group in the hemisphere has been so advantaged. If Castro's policies created the potential for mass exodus, U.S. policies made the exodus possible.”R.F. Fagen, R. A. Brody, and T. J. O'Leary, Cubans in Exile: Disaffection and the Revolution (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1968), p. 102.
7.
rpt. in Cortes, ed., Cuban Refugee Programs.
8.
and New York Times Index, 1959-80.
9.
9. Fagen, Brody, and O'Leary, Cubans in Exile, p. 4.
10.
10. “Exile” and “Cuban refugee” have been used interchangeably from 1959 on. During the early 1960s, however, the former term predominated in newspaper accounts and was frequently linked—as it has been consistently since—with attempts to overthrow the Castro regime.
11.
11. Thomas, Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom, p. 1271.
12.
12. Ibid., p. 1243.
13.
13. Kennedy apparently arrived at this view independently of the Eisenhower administration, since prior to learning of its CIA initiatives in Cuba, he had commenced urging the arming of exiles in the United States as part of his presidential campaign.
14.
rpt. in Cortes, ed., Cuban Refugee Programs.
15.
15. Ibid., p. 10.
16.
16. Resettlement and registration figures are drawn from Thomas, “Cuban Refugees in the United States,” p. 14, Table 2. The flow estimate is a projection based on INS annual figures and estimated rates of flow.
17.
17. Arthur M. Schlessinger, Jr., A Thousand Days: Kennedy in the White House (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965), p. 242.
18.
18. Typical of the press coverage of the time was an editorial in the Washington Post, 18 Apr. 1960, p. 14. Entitled “Invasion of Cuba,” it began, “Most Americans will make no secret of their sympathy with the efforts of Cubans to overthrow the Communist-dominated regime of Fidel Castro.” Later it asserts, “There is no law or treaty which precludes American help to those who are seeking to regain their freedom.”
19.
19. Speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, 20 Apr. 1961, Department of State Bulletin, 44(1141):660 (8 May 1961).
20.
20. Ibid.
21.
21. Ibid.
22.
22. Ibid.
23.
23. Ibid., p. 659.
24.
Sobel , ed., Castro's Cuba in the 1970's, p. 131.
25.
25. See U.S. Senate Select Committee, Alleged Assassination Plots.
26.
Also see New York Times, 17 Apr. 1963, p. 1.
27.
27. New York Times, 20 Oct. 1976, p. 3; New York Times, 22 Oct. 1976, p. 4; New York Times, 24 Oct. 1976, sec. IV, p. 2; New York Times, 28 Nov. 1976, p. 35; and Washington Post, 25 Oct. 1976, see. A, p. 26.
28.
28. Migration and Refugee Assisstance Act of 1962, 76 Stat. 121.
29.
29. Act of 2 Nov. 1966, 80 Stat. 1161.
30.
30. Edwin A. Martin, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, “Interdependence and the Principles of Self-Determination” (Address before the Pan-American Society of the United States, 16 Apr. 1963), Department of State Bulletin, 48(1245):711 (6 May 1963).
31.
31. Ibid.
32.
32. George Ball, “Principles of Our Policy toward Cuba” (Speech before a Convention of the Omicron Delta Kappa Society, 23 Apr. 1964), Department of State Bulletin, 50(1298):741 (11 May 1964).
33.
33. Ibid.
34.
34. Ibid.
35.
35. Ibid.
36.
36. “President Urges Wall of Liberty Encircling Cuba” (Speech before Central American President's Conference, 18 Mar. 1963), New York Times, 19 Mar. 1963, p. 1.
37.
37. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker, OAS Representative, Address to the Council of the Organization of American States, 27 Feb. 1965, Department of State Bulletin, 52(1344):465 (29 Mar. 1965).
38.
38. Thomas C. Mann, Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs, “The Western Hemisphere's Fight for Freedom,”Department of State Bulletin, 51(1321):550 (19 Oct. 1964).
39.
39. “Remarks at the Signing of the Immigration Bill,” 3 Oct. 1965, in Public Papers of the Presidents: Lyndon Johnson, 1965 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1966-68), Vol. 2, pp. 1039-1040.
40.
40. Testimony of Virginia Dominguez, House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees, and International Law, 24 May 1979, Committee Report, Hearings on the Refugee Act of 1979, House Report 2816 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1979).
41.
41. “Memorandum of Understanding Concerning the Movement to the United States of Cubans Wishing to Live in the United States,”“Third Separate Note on Political Prisoners,” 6 Nov. 1965; rpt. in House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Hearings: Cubo and the Caribbean (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1970), pp. 5-9.
42.
42. Statement of Robert A. Hurwitch, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, 8 July 1970; rpt. in ibid., p. 41.
43.
43. Ball, “Principles of Our Policy,” p. 743.
44.
44. For an excellent treatment of the symbolic function of political migrations to the United States, see Silvia Pedraza-Bailey, “Cubans and Mexicans in the United States: The Functions of Political and Economic Migration,”Cuban Studies/Estudios Cubanos, 11(2)/12(1):79-97 (July 1981-Jan. 1982).
45.
45. Hurwitch, Statement, p. 5.
46.
46. Arthur Goldberg, Statement before the General Assembly, 21 Dec. 1965, Department of State Bulletin, 50(1387):128 (24 Jan. 1966).
47.
47. Ibid., pp. 128-129.
48.
48. At issue was a $1 million appropriation by the U.N. Special Fund and the Food and Agriculture Organization for an agricultural research station in Cuba. The United States objected continually to the grant of such technical assistance from 1961 through the spring of 1963. See Secretary of State Rusk, “U.S. Position on Special Food Project in Cuba,” 13 Feb. 1963, State Department Bulletin, 48(1237):357 (11 Mar. 1963).
49.
49. For more than a year before the end of the freedom flights, it had been reported that Cuba might end them because of the economic effect of losing its professional class. See New York Times, 6 Dec. 1971, p. 25.
50.
Two weeks later, the press was emphasizing “the rapidly growing backlash.”“The Cuban Tide Is a Flood,”Newsweek, 19 May 1980, p. 29.
51.
Similar attempts to cut off airlift funds to aid U.S. urban poor occurred in 1970. See New York Times, 10 July 1970, p. 4.
52.
52. Henry Kissinger, “The Process of Detente” (Statement delivered to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 19 Sept. 1974), in his American Foreign Policy, 3rd ed. (New York: Norton, 1977), pp. 144-145.
53.
and Henry Kissinger, “Moral Purposes and Policy Choices,”Department of State Bulletin, 69: 525 (1973).
54.
54. William Rogers, Statement of 12 Apr. 1972, Department of State Bulletin, 66(1714): 621 (1 May, 1972).
However, by October 1968, Vice-President Humphrey was taking a considerably harder line. See New York Times, 20 Oct. 1968, p. 74.
58.
58. See New York Times, 2 Feb. 1969, p. 48; and New York Times, 9 Dec. 1969, p. 4.
59.
New York Times, 29 Oct. 1971, p. 40.
60.
Pronormalization statements issued by the other named groups were reported by the New York Times, 25 May 1969, p. 40, and 21 Aug. 1969, p. 7.
61.
61. Sobel, ed. Castro's Cuba in the 1970's, p. 46.
62.
“Human Rights and the Refugee Crisis,” 2 June 1982, Department of State Bulletin, 82(2066):43-45, 44 (Sept. 1982).
63.
63. The 1965 amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1965 essentially defined a refugee as a person fleeing persecution in a communist-dominated or Middle Eastern country. INA, sec. 203(a) (7), 8 USC 1153(a) (7) (1965) (repealed). Most Cubans were not admitted under the direct authority of these amendments, although they did receive favorable immigration treatment. To the best of the authors' knowledge, almost without exception, Cubans prior to the summer of 1980 were not required by the Immigration Service to show any personal opposition to the Castro regime or any personal hardship exacted as a price for particular associations or political beliefs.
64.
64. Agreement on the Hijacking of Aircraft and Vessels and Other Offenses (15 Feb. 1973), TIAS 7575, UNTS, 24:737. This was the first agreement to limit the use of the United States as a base for terrorist exile groups against Cuba and received virtually no publicity in the United States.
65.
65. Quoted in Jan Knippers Blacket al., Area Handbook for Cuba (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1976), p. 345.
66.
66. “President's News Conference of December 20, 1975,” in Public Papers of the Presidents: Gerald Ford, 1975 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office), vol. 2, p. 1987.
67.
67. Public Papers of the Presidents: Gerald Ford, 1976 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office), vol. 1, p. 464.
68.
68. Ibid.
69.
and Ronald Copeland, “The Cuban Boatlift of 1980: Strategies in Federal Crisis Management,”The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 467 (May 1983).
70.
70. New York Times, 22 Nov. 1978, p. 2.
71.
71. Sobel, ed., Castro's Cuba in the 1970's, p. 159.
72.
72. Interview with the President, and Question and Answer Session with a group of Publishers, Editors, and Broadcasters, 20 May 1977, in Public Papers of the Presidents: Jimmy Carter, 1977 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office), vol. 1, p. 946.
73.
73. New York Times, 24 Oct. 1978, p. 13.
74.
74. New York Times, 22 Nov. 1978, p. 2.
75.
75. New York Times, 25 Nov. 1978, p. 25, correcting account of 19 Nov. 1975 remarks.
76.
76. “Castro Would Free 3000,”New York Times, 23 Nov. 1978, p. 7.
77.
77. “Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Remarks by President Carter, 6 Dec. 1978, Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, 14(49):2163 (11 Dec. 1978).
78.
78. Sklar, Cuban Exodus, p. 28.
79.
79. The phrase is from a speech made by Fidel Castro in December 1979. It is quoted and analyzed in Rivera, “Cuban and Haitian Influxes,” p. 291.
80.
80. LeoGrande, “Cuba Policy Recycled,” p. 111.
81.
81. U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1979 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Offices, 1980), pp. 291-297.
82.
82. Speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, 10 Apr. 1980, in Public Papers of the Presidents: Jimmy Carter, 1980-81 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1981), vol. 1, p. 642.
83.
83. New York Times, 6 Apr. 1980, p. 4.
84.
84. “Cuban Refugees in the Peruvian Embassy in Havana,” White House Statement, 14 Apr. 1980, in Public Papers of the Presidents, Jimmy Carter, 1980-81, vol. 1, p. 682.
85.
85. Senator Kennedy urged such a use of the Refugee Act in a public letter to the president on 20 May 1980. See Congressional Record, 6 June 1980, S.6436-S.6437.
86.
86. “League of Women Voters,” Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session, 5 May 1980, in Public Papers of the Presidents: Jimmy Carter, 1980-81, vol. 1, pp. 833-834.
87.
ibid., vol. 1, p. 819.
88.
88. In the weeks before President Carter announced his intention of using the Coast Guard to stop the boat traffic from Mariel Harbor, it had been used for precisely the opposite purpose. According to one newspaper account, “As thousands of Cubans continue to express abhorrence of Fidel Castro's rule of their homeland by streaming away from it in anything that can float, the U.S. Coast Guard is laboring mightily to ensure their safe arrival on these shores in one of the biggest peacetime operations it has ever mounted.”“Coast Guard Shepherding Cubans from Danger to Succor: Small Boat Armada Depends on `Mothering' by Cutters,”Christian Science Monitor, 8 May 1980.
89.
89. Rivera, “Cuban and Haitian Influxes,” p. 292.
90.
90. Abrams, “Human Rights and the Refugee Crisis.”
