These two presidents couldn’t be more
different, but they ordered migrants to be detained on military bases.
In the late 1970s, waves of
“boat people” came ashore (or were rescued by the Coast Guard) in Florida from
Haiti and Cuba. The public was divided. Many Floridians were outraged to see
destitute brown and black people appear out of nowhere in their communities.
President Jimmy Carter
resettled new migrants from Cuba and Haiti to a federal fort in Puerto Rico in
Executive Order 12244. The order had an oblique quality. It
designated Fort Allen in Puerto Rico as a place for the immediate relocation
and temporary housing of Haitian and Cuban nationals. It also provided for the
immediate relocation and temporary housing of Haitian and Cuban nationals in
Florida; and suspended federal water safety and environmental laws for this
purpose. Nothing in the title of the executive order suggested that it dealt
with immigration.
The lessons?
One is that our immigration
laws and procedures cannot handle a surge.
Second, both presidents
bent to public pressure in local communities to remove unwanted immigrants.
Third, Carter put his order
under a heading that dealt with sanitation standards. Trump, facing a similar
challenge, incites Americans to hate on migrants.
Fourth: As noted by a blog reader, Carter did not separate children from families.
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Postscript: Many of the Cubans and Haitians were granted asylum. Forty years later, they and their children are mostly an American success story.
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Postscript: Many of the Cubans and Haitians were granted asylum. Forty years later, they and their children are mostly an American success story.
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