Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Mr. King
Period 2
dead on Wednesday after the U.S. Coast Guard spent hours scouring the waters off
wrong.” The sixteen survivors, including the captain of the ship, were stranded in
frigid waters for over ten hours as the Coast Guard searched the waters off of the
coast of Boynton Beach, Fla. The boat departed from Bimini in the Bahamas with a
dangerous load of 30 passengers, who paid by the thousands for the narrow and
after the boat capsized in the Atlantic Ocean around 2:00 AM on Wednesday
morning, a passing boater contacted the Coast Guard of three survivors discovered
floating fifteen miles off of the coast of Boynton Beach. This launched a massive air
and sea effort to rescue as many survivors as possible. The search lasted through
the night and eight body bags in total were counted the next morning. Three of the
passengers were released to the hospital for immediate medical attention upon
reaching land and although one survivor perished while receiving said medical
waters have been caught and returned by the Coast Guard since last October. This
data is a considerable increase from the 972 apprehensions recorded from the
and poverty that Haitians face in their native land, it is not too surprising. Haiti has
suffered over $1 billion worth of damage in the past year as a result of Hurricanes
Gustav and Ike and Tropical Storms Fay and Hanna. The brutal effects of these
resources and stable government or funding in Haiti has, quite literally, reduced the
free republic to third world status as well as being labeled as the poorest country in
the Western Hemisphere. Unrelated to any smuggling incidents, almost 700 lives
were lost to the ocean after concurrent hurricane and tropical storms swept over
Hispaniola, which houses the Republic of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The
people of Haiti face famine and abject poverty in their homeland and for every case
of tragic failure such as this, word will reach the ears of struggling peons of a
handful of migrants who managed to infiltrate the American system and are
enjoying prosperity in the “free [white]” world of the United States of America,
which can seem well worth the risk when the alternative is a slow and torturous
‘Infiltrate’ they must, for unlike Cuban migrants who are allowed to escape
the threat of repatriation so long as they reach land under the ‘dry foot’ status
immigrants are deported to their homeland regardless of where, or when, they are
Cuban Adjustment Act resulted in the “wet foot, dry foot” policy which attempted to
normalize migration between Communist Cuba and the United States. According to
the policy, any migrants intercepted with ‘wet feet’ or while still navigating the
waters between Cuba and America will be repatriated. Conversely, any Cuban
immigrants who reach dry land are offered the opportunity to remain in the United
negotiations changed drastically under President Clinton who altered the original
CAA (Cuban Adjustment Act) to ensure that America would no longer admit Cubans
discovered at sea. In response to the shift in migration patterns from Cuba since the
policy was enacted, the term “dusty foot” refers to Cuban immigrants who find
asylum by traveling to Mexico and through the U.S.-Mexican border into Texas.
specifically the boating accident which resulted in nine Haitians dead and even
vs. economic refugees, those who are granted asylum and those who aren’t, it has
an immigrant. The prospect of setting out from your home country, transporting as
connection to your culture, your family, your history, and the legacy of your first
and true home is not an abstract thought or food for idle thought. It is a reality that
too many people face, in varying degrees, everyday all throughout the world. While
most of us will complain about our lights being off for days, or even weeks, at a
time; or lament the less than stellar or fashionable condition of our wardrobes;
forego good, honest work because it will not fund our lavish dreams of four-story
mansions and an entire island to call our very own, these are people who are willing
to risk everything, up to and including their very lives (and the lives of their
children), for a hint of a chance to hope so that they can work and build a better
future.
So long as the people asking to be allowed into this country are not known to
be criminals or terrorists of any kind, I cannot think of one good reason why they
should be denied or forcibly removed. I am not concerned with anyone who seeks
amnesty simply to collect government welfare or waste their lives while fattening
well as legal immigrants. However, for every supposed fault I have come across that
is associated with the immigrant stigma, I have found a simple solution with a
minimal amount of reasoning. Denying anyone for not being born within the borders
of this nation is redundant since the borders shift to include more land each time we
acquire a new territory or geographic shift alters the shape of already existing U.S.
take away valuable American jobs is ignorant as well as ludicrous, as for any job,
competition is inevitable. Immigration status does not alter or affect the fact that
another person may be more qualified than a natural-born citizen. Likewise, if the
decision is made out of fear or terrorism, one could compare it to the local terrorists
that strike in our neighborhoods, in our homes, and at our loved ones every day?
We are all only human, as fallible and prone to love and mercy as we are to
fear and hate. Whether we build our lives in the countries we are born or on
different soil than where our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. were
raised is of little consequence. It is up to each individual to make what they will with
the gifts and opportunities before them. In the event that an entire country is
suffering, for whatever reason, and a citizen seeks out help to live a life worth living,
with the same opportunities as the rest of us, it is the duty of all free nations of the
world to accept them. Especially since, whether or not you can trace your bloodline
to one of the “founding fathers” does not change the fact that the U.S.A. was
crossing a body of water. Whether they are Cuban, Haitian, Mexican, Nicaraguan,
Japanese, German, English, French, African, Indian, Iraqi, or whatever, if someone is
willing to come to this country, abide by our laws, and make a sincere effort to live
productively, I believe they deserve the chance to live here even more than the
unbelievably high number of Americans from all social classes who squander their
birthrights in the name of exercising the free will and liberties to sit at home and do