The recent images of Cubans dying in the Florida Straits are a sad reminder of what has happened all too often when Cubans attempt the perilous journey across the Florida straits.   The Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) believes it is our duty to call attention, once more, to this ongoing human crisis at sea and to offer a sensible, viable alternative to the continued loss of lives in the Florida Straits.  

The CANF is convinced that a common sense solution that balances the prevention of these human tragedies with the fundamental national security concerns of the United States can be found.   

Throughout the year 2005 we saw a substantial increase in almost equal numbers of “wet footers” and “dry footers” along with countless human tragedies at sea, including several who died while in the process of being interdicted by the Coast Guard. Legitimate freedom seekers, many dehydrated and disoriented, are subjected to interviews aboard a Coast Guard vessel in circumstances that clearly conspire against a fair assessment of their eligibility for asylum.  

A closer look at the demographics of those who take to the sea, reveals that the overwhelming majority are young families with close relatives in the United States who pay smugglers or drive themselves on fast boats to Florida. Most of the U.S. relatives, being recent arrivals themselves, lack priority status to claim their family or face many years of an extended procedural wait for family reunification.

Meanwhile, in compliance with the Immigration Accord of 1995, the United States has been issuing up to 20,000 immigrant visas annually to Cuban nationals under a lottery system whose names are extracted from a list of applicants originally made a decade ago and by now substantially depleted. The Cuban government has steadfastly refused to allow a renewed process of application. Soon, the United States will be confronted with no names from which to comply with the requirements of the Accord while thousands of relatives of previous immigrant visa lottery winners risk their lives in pursuit of freedom and family reunification.

The result is that the United States, since 1995, in an effort to control the immigration of Cuban nationals, has been implementing a policy that, in effect, impedes legitimate family reunification while rewarding luck, illegality and risk taking.    

Recognizing that the overwhelming majority of those who take to the seas have relatives in the United States, CANF’s proposal encourages family reunification by establishing a "set-aside" program, within the current 20,000 visa limit, that apportions visas to eligible applicants on the island, targeting those whose families currently reside in the United States as well as bona fide political refugees.   To encourage compliance and minimize attempts at illegal entry, potential applicants would forfeit their consideration for visas altogether if they make any attempts to enter the United States via the Florida Straits.

The program could be implemented within the same or similar guidelines as those established under the Agreement signed in 1988 between CANF’s Cuban Exodus Relief Fund and the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the United States. That Agreement, executed during the Reagan and Bush (father) Administrations, unified in the United States over 10,000 Cuban families in three years at no cost to the U.S. taxpayer. Through CANF, the Cuban-American community committed sufficient resources to provide for relocation expenses, jobs, living quarters and health insurance for the new arrivals.

With the sincere desire to find a viable, effective solution to the incessant loss of lives in the Florida Straits, CANF is prepared to provide a detailed proposal as well as the commitment that the new arrivals will become a valuable asset, not a burden to the taxpayers of this Country.