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Dry-foot game: a sporting chance?

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Cuban refugees land on Longboat Key's tip
12/19/2006
Though damp and chilly after their pre-dawn Monday landing, the 25 Cuban "refugees" who made it to Beer Can beach had just waded to victory in the big game of immigration tag.

They were just waiting to be picked up by any American with a uniform, so they could have their victory officially recorded and acknowledged.

Thanks to our bizarre wet-foot/dry-foot policy, the Cubans' dark-of-night arrival on the sands of Longboat Key, U.S.A., after a boat trip from Cuba -- without being busted first by the Coast Guard while on or in the water -- means they are officially welcome in America.

Or they will be, as soon as the paperwork is done.

So, congratulations, and thanks for playing!

Unlike many others who sneak into this country, the newly arrived Cubans will not have to adopt fake names, use other people's Social Security numbers, work in off-the-books jobs or worry about arrest and deportation.

They might even be among the last Cubans to become legal residents of the United States based on an official claim of fleeing the tyranny of Fidel Castro.

Of course, Castro may have had little to do with why those people came here. People from lots of nearby countries -- the poor ones -- take risks to sneak into this country.

Still, Castro has been one great excuse. If the 80-year-old dictator dies, it may or may not change much in Cuba right away, but I hope our nation's leaders use the excuse to end our useless and destructive Cuba policies.

I'm thinking of the ones that have actually helped prop up the communist dictator, though aimed at undermining him. I hope we end the economic embargo of Cuba, which was designed to hurt the Cuban people so much they would get mad, blame Castro and oust him.

Instead, the island country's residents have largely accepted Castro's claims that the evil and manipulative imperialist leaders of the United States are the obvious and intentional cause of their poverty.

Other residents, whatever their economic theories, just wanted to go where the dollars are. But if we had let them all of them come here, it would have made our embargo and the misery it causes look as pointless as it actually is.

On the other hand, while demonizing Castro and his government as iron-fisted and hellishly tyrannical, how could we turn our backs on Cubans who escaped him and arrived claiming desperate yearnings to breathe free?

The answer?

Wet-foot/dry foot, a game-like compromise between controlled immigration and no rules at all, and only for Cubans. But if the point is to show compassion for "refugees fleeing communism," why only let them in if their feet make it to dry sand?

Why make it a hide-and-seek contest in which we deport those the Coast Guard intercepts at sea, or catches wading in the surf before their foreign feet touch the beach?

The idea is to limit the numbers of incoming Cubans by making it a challenge, so many will fear to risk it.

Reach a beach and you are ollie-ollie-in free, but get tagged first and you're "it," a loser, a reject, an undesirable sent back to Castro, who will know about your crass betrayal of his revolution.

Wanna play? Sure, it is nuts, but what about our immigration policy is sane?

At least it is sporting. Heck, I'm surprised we don't have something similar for the border with Mexico.

I bet paint-ball enthusiasts would pay plenty for an immigrant-tagging license.

Any would-be immigrant tagged with paint would be declared outta here, but those who get through unmarked could get a welcome-wagon basket o' goodies and a low-wage job, no fraud required.

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Tom Lyons can be contacted at tom.lyons@heraldtribune.com or (941) 361-4964.