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Comment by tomohawk | Hacker News Reader

Cubans are trying to escape a repressive regime and face real consequences if caught or sent back. Obama sides with the regime and starts sending the refugees back, unilaterally changing longstanding US policy in the last week of being in office.

All I heard was crickets.

In this case, we have 7 countries already designated as requiring enhanced vetting due to terrorist concerns.

Suddenly, outrage.

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I assume you are referring to the ending of the "wet foot, dry foot" policy, which gave automatic admittance to Cubans who arrived by boat and managed to get at least one foot on land before being caught, and sent back those who were caught before they reached shore?

If so, you are greatly overstating the bad effects of ending that policy.

First of all, that was not the only way Cubans could apply for refugee status. All other paths to refugee status are still open to them. All that is ending is giving them a special path.

Second, its use had dropped way off over the last several years. Most Cubans who come to the US without visas, as refugees or otherwise, come over land through Mexico now. (Cuba has greatly eased travel restrictions).

Third, most Cubans who come over now are not coming as refugees. They are coming for jobs, or to visit family, or access American welfare programs. In short, they are coming for the same reasons that Mexicans come. If they use "wet food, dry foot" it is more likely to be as a way to jump the line than as a way to escape oppression.

Here's an article from National Review about why this program had outlived its usefulness: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/429939/cuban-immigrati...

The Mexican route appears closed

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/world/article/Mexico-return...

This is a little disingenuous. The largest part of the outrage is because these are people who have already gone through enhanced vetting and in many cases have lives and family in the US.

The Cuban repressive regime isn't all the repressive any more. You can't have a blanket automatic acceptance of refugees when there are direct flights between Cuba and the US. Quitting old refugee policy is a part of renormalizing relations between our countries.

We think, and rightly so, that we can do more for Cubans by opening our economies now than we can by continuing the status quo. Part of that is shutting off the valve for refugees.

The US is so polarized now that no one looks at an action's merits any more, just whether or not the red team or the blue team did it, and then they either express maximum outrage (always maximum, never anything less), or do mental backflips to justify it, depending on whether it's "their" team doing it or not. Political discussions are reduced to spewing hate at anyone or anything perceived as being attributable to the "other" team. Nuanced thought is not tolerated.

Things have been heading this way since the end of the Cold War. Once the Berlin wall came down, there was no longer an external "enemy" to rally against, so a new one had to be invented. Unfortunately, that ended up being an "other" internal to the same country. It feels like this internal schism finally reached a boiling point in the most recent election. People I normally think of as reasonable are angry and unwilling to listen to rational thought. There is nowhere left to turn for cooler heads. I am afraid of where it all is going from here.

I've seen restrictions on a visa waiver compared to preventing green card holders from returning to their homes. Here I'm seeing total admission to the country if you can get here compared to banning people who already have visas and have completed the extreme vetting required.

I know people who have to fly back to their home country yearly as part of the process of maintaining their visa, and live in fear it won't be approved. And they aren't even from the mid-east, where the standards are harsher. It's not a fair comparison.

Those are two very different things and you know it.

You're right. The Cubans face serious repercussions once they get back.

What about the other guys? They're from countries that actively sponsor terrorism or who can't properly vet people.

And what about the chaos at the airports for the Cubans when Obama's order went out?

http://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/sur-de-la-florida/arti...

http://www.diariolasamericas.com/florida/cubanos-visas-turis...

http://www.martinoticias.com/a/cuba-deportan-cubanos-llegan-...

You say one thing then demonstrate evidence of the opposite, there was plenty of media attention on Obama's order.

this is a purely emotional appeal with no basis in fact. There were plenty of people and media attention on Obama's move and its geopolitical nature of locking Trump into the Cuban reapproach.

American left is willing to "forgive" and even embrace murderous "communists" like castros and che guevaras of the world for a variety of [misguided in my book] reasons so no wonder. I mean who in their right mind would be willing to escape the "communist paradise" :)

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