The Immigration And Refugee Policies - 1191 Words

This paper will examine the immigration and refugee policies applied to Cubans and Salvadorans from the late-20th century, marking the initial surge of migrants from this region to the United States. The main reason that led to differences between Salvadoran and Cuban granted refugee status in the U.S. was the fact that Salvadorans were fleeing violence of regimes that the U.S. supported while Cubans were fleeing the U. S’s primary enemy, communism. This in turn led to different integration processes and acceptance into the state. The U. S’s Cold War policies of preventing the spread of communism depended on the U.S.’s Military interventions. However, the U.S. military occupations did not lead to democratic governments and more†¦show more content†¦President Ronald Reagan argued that this threatened the U.S. way of life and hemisphere as a whole and on May 9, 1984 addressed U.S. foreign policy allowing Cubans to come into the state as â€Å"political refugees† (Guerra,331). For the U.S. government, Cuban emigrants provided the rationale for continuing foreign policy aimed at containing communism and expanding the forces needed for battle (Guerra,340). Among the waves of Cubans who migrated to the United States, those who were benefited the most were the the elite and working class (Pedraza,265). Being made up of the upper class that had a good education and expertise resulted in a warm welcome and substantial economic opportunities. Cubans enjoyed near automatic entrance in the the U.S. through President Lyndon Johnson’s â€Å"open door† policy that allowed the entrance of refugees from communism. Under this joint policy the U.S. and Cuban government set up Freedom Flights that daily brought in Cubans for eight years which totaled more than 250,000 people (Pedraza,313). These social classes enjoyed automatic permanent residency status and additional benefits such as food, cash allotments, Cubans-only education programs, and other privileges never extended to other immigrants or minority groups. However, the third wave of migrants, the Marielitos, instead of being welcomed like they were in the past 20 years, the U.S. focused inordinately on the criminal element (Pedraza,270). This group