The Biden administration has been far from stellar in its reaction to the unrest in Cuba, but at least its tepid message is improving.
As Biden at first took far too long to comment on the wave of protests against Cuba’s vicious communist regime, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas earned justifiable criticism for seeming to deter Cuban refugees while showing outlandish leniency to illegal immigrants from Central America.
Mayorkas raised hackles by saying, “Allow me to be clear. If you take to the sea, you will not come to the United States.” He said there would be no U.S. entry even for those who prove a “well-founded fear of persecution or torture.” Those unfortunate people, he said, would be sent to third countries for resettlement.
The “stay away” message to Cubans fleeing communist repression was jarring, considering that this is the same administration that has implemented policies at our Mexican border that effectively amount to flashing a neon “welcome” sign to attract as many illegal immigrants as possible, even if it harms their health and safety.
Speaking of communism, Biden himself seemed loath to mention it. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, whose family immigrated from Cuba, was right to criticize the president for failing to speak of the brutal ideology at the heart of Cuba’s problems. Referring to Biden, Rubio astutely said on Fox News that “he finally said something. [But] he still left out the word ‘Marxist’ and ‘Communist’ and ‘socialist.'”
So too did the Voice of America, now under the management of Biden’s left-wing team. The taxpayer-funded agency outrageously gave disproportionate reporting space and even tacit endorsement to the Cuban government’s specious claims that the country’s troubles are the fault of U.S. policy and that the protests are “provocations” against a “peaceful country, contrary to the U.S.”
On Thursday, the administration finally got the message, albeit four days late, with White House press secretary Jen Psaki specifying that Cuba was an “authoritarian communist” state with an “ideology … which has failed.” Well, better late than never.
The Biden team’s response, though far from ideal, represents an improvement over the last Democratic administration under Barack Obama. Obama was remarkably friendly and generous to Cuba’s oppressors. Biden, even before putting his finger on the island nation’s Marxist plague, did at least say, “We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime.” That decent level of support for the protesters is a heck of a lot better than VOA’s contribution as well.
Mayorkas’s message, too, has been somewhat clarified. He and the administration both have stressed, more strongly as the week has gone on, that their concern about Cuban sea refugees is a humanitarian one, aimed at discouraging the dangers of sea crossings in often ill-equipped vessels during hurricane season.
One big problem: He isn’t noticeably deterring sea voyages. What effectively is an open border from Mexico has encouraged far more Cubans to come to the U.S. that way. As reported by Reuters, “This fiscal year through May, which began in October, border officials encountered more than 22,000 Cubans, the highest level in more than a decade.” And they aren’t being turned away. “By May of this year, the last month data is available, around 96% of Cubans were allowed into the United States to reunite with U.S.-based family members and seek legal status in immigration court.”
One would think, at first, that at least land crossings are safer. But they aren’t. Cubans must cross the Gulf of Mexico not to reach Mexico, too. Mayorkas’s combination of bad policies isn’t making it safer to come to the U.S. at all; it just means that those interdicted at sea are absolutely forbidden to stay here — even though they, unlike many of those who come from Central America, truly are victims of the most heinous political oppression and merit asylum.
In the end, as Mike Gonzalez of the Heritage Foundation reminds us, “the best way we can help the people of Cuba is by remaining free ourselves.” Gonzalez, who fled Cuba when he was 12, knows whereof he speaks. As another Cuban refugee once said, he was lucky to “have somewhere to escape to. If we lose freedom here, there’s no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.”
We will remain free only so long as we reject the socialist nostrums that have plagued Cuba for 62 years. To combat that evil, Biden personally needs to name it and denounce it — and resist proto-socialist policies here at home as well.
