The Washington Times
May 4, 2000
Cuban-Americans, welcome
House Editorial
"One Down, 800,000 To Go," read a banner in
a Miami rally supporting the Justice Department's raid on the home of
relatives of Elian Gonzalez. The "one" to which the banner referred
was Elian, while 800,000 is the approximate population of
Cuban-Americans in Miami. "Don't Fight Your Battles Here. Go Home and
Fight Your War" read another.
These banners illustrate the seamier side
of a debate over Elian that many persons had already found bemusing. The
controversy has caused many "it takes a village" liberals to become
vocal defenders of the nuclear family. They deeply resent
distinguishing communist Cuba from any other country and therefore
favor deporting Elian to his native land, just as if he'd come
from Mexico. Though some traditional defenders of the conventional
family believe that uniting Elian with his father is
paramount, others feel it is more important to secure a life of freedom
for the child.
While much of the country is mulling issues
related to family unification, the right to apply for asylum and the heavy-handed
rule of Fidel Castro, however, these banners suggest that some Americans
who feel strongly about the Elian case and who
supported the government raid aren't focused on any of these issues.
They feel strongly that Elian, and his kind for that matter,
don't belong in the United States.
Such critics can generally be described as
staunchly anti-immigrant. Although America has been, since its inception,
a
country of immigrants, some of its citizens have become suspicious
and contemptuous of the newly arrived, especially if their
culture and ethnicity is at odds with their own. Thus while some Cuban-Americans
have come to see Americans' support for
the government raid as the manifestation of their failure to communicate
effectively the cruelty of the Castro regime, they may be
misreading, in part, the public mood. Perhaps the Elian case is as
much about general perceptions regarding immigration in
general as it is about Cuba and Fidel specifically.
That would be unfortunate. Doubtless, some
Americans believe immigrants are an economic drag, taking more in the way
of
government benefits than they contribute to this country's financial
well-being. But except for refugees and the elderly, for
example, immigrants are considerably less likely than natives to receive
welfare. Among longer-term immigrants of working age,
3.2 percent are on welfare versus 3.7 percent for working-age natives,
according to a 1996 study by Michael Fix and Jeffrey
Passel of the Urban Institute. Refugees who arrive fleeing persecution
and war are more likely to collect public assistance,
because of the trauma they have experienced, their limited assets,
and poor knowledge of English, but their incomes tend to rise
steadily over time. The intangible assets — imagination, dreams, intelligence,
skills and other hard-to-measure resources — that
they bring with them mean they are far wealthier than would first appear.
All they need is an opportunity to succeed, something
this country has in abundance.
The 800,000 Cuban-Americans living in Miami
have contributed to our economy, and they enrich the national culture.
They
are fighting a noble fight against a brutal dictatorship not far from
this country's shores. America should be proud to have them
on its soil.