Why we welcome Cuban refugees but turn away those from Central America

Since the 1960s, Spanish- speaking Cubans fleeing the Castro regime have been welcomed enthusiastically by Republicans who provided them with every assistance, documentation formalities waived. Meanwhile, our nation has sent back all Haitian refugees fleeing their equally repressive government.

Now, today, Republicans are stopping at nothing to bar other Spanish- speaking refugees fleeing misery and death threats in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. But this practice, even to separating parents from children in detention camps, has caused such an outrage that President Donald Trump has had to reverse his directive.

The unequal treatment, nevertheless, continues.

What’s the common denominator in this pattern of official favoritism versus official hostility? For one, it is skin color. Nearly all those Cubans were visually white, while those crossing over from the Mexican border are some shade of tan or brown. Secondly, Cubans loyally vote Republican, while refugees from Mexico and Central America tend to vote Democrat, reacting to Republican hostility.

This time, the Trump machine overplayed its hand. But a reflexive impulse to bar people continues to animate U. S. immigration policy, which historically has always been hostile to groups not from Western Europe.

The essential truth is that almost all immigrants become loyal, respectable and hardworking citizens, even to serving in our military.

The push- back against Trump seems to mark a reassertion of what America, this nation of immigrants, has always stood for. Every successive group has further enriched the whole. This is what made America great long before Donald Trump was born.