Q&A of the Day – Asylum Seekers 

Today’s entry: As a fellow Cuban American I’m assuming the effort to send recently arriving Cubans to Delaware is a response to a change in asylum law. Cubans are escaping an authoritarian dictator and basic human right violations. THE Definition for asylum. 

Bottom Line: Today’s question is in response to Lt. Governor Jeanette Nunez’s recent Spanish language interview in which she was asked about the rapidly increasing number of Cubans fleeing the country and seeking asylum in Florida. In response to the questions Florida’s Lt. Governor, who is of Cuban dissent as her parents were exiles – said Governor DeSantis’ plan was to send them, frankly, speaking to Delaware, the President’s state. This was seized on immediately by Charlie Crist and Democrat operatives who’ve turned it into campaign material including ads. In response, Nunez issued an official statement which read in part: Back in April Governor DeSantis said he would send illegal immigrants dumped in Florida to states like Delaware. The crisis at our border is something affecting the entire nation, including the Sunshine State. Entering the country illegally and fleeing a dictatorship to seek asylum are two different things and misrepresenting that is offensive. So, this takes us to the crux of your question. Is Nunez on point, or is this an artful political attempt to make her original statement go away, or perhaps both?  

The first, important, point to be made is that there is a difference between any Cuban who makes the trek across the Florida Straights directly to Florida as opposed to those who chose to enter Mexico, or another country in route to Mexico, to cross the Southern Border. It’s a topic I’ve covered extensively over the years, including an expose in 2018-2019 in which I exposed leftist American interest groups like Chicago based Pueblo Sin Fronteras which were the ones responsible for first organizing caravans of people to overwhelm our southern border and asylum system. Speaking of which they were also the first to teach would be border crosses the magic words to say to gain access to the asylum process in this country. After exposing an effort to dump illegal immigrants from the southern border in Broward and Palm Beach County in 2019 – which stopped it from happening, I brought you this in my story Asylum seekers are almost all illegal immigrants: While we recently exposed and prevented the transfer and release of illegal immigrants into Broward and Palm Beach Counties – it's still happening along the border and with states as far north as New York. According to the DHS’s latest report here’s what we know...  

  • 87% of these individuals haven’t shown up for court appearances as promised at the time of their release 
  • Only 12% who do show up are determined to be legitimate asylum seekers 
  • Thus Only 1.5% of asylum seekers are legit 

In other words, 98.5% of seekers caught and released in our country are illegal immigrants. We’ve never come close to experiencing anything like this in our country’s history. Had the program moved forward in South Florida, we would have introduced around 985 illegal immigrants into our community per month. While it’s a good thing we got it stopped here – it's a crisis everywhere, this is playing out across the country. The need for additional resources and physical barriers at the border has never been clearer

That’s what led to President Trump’s remain in Mexico policy which was rescinded under President Biden. Also, note that now we’re talking about millions of asylum seekers not hundreds of thousands as we were three plus years ago. But as for why almost all asylum seekers were illegals then and why they almost all are now, comes down to this immovable fact. What the legal definition of asylum is. Under international law... One who is seeking asylum must do so in the first safe country they are encountered in. This means the only legal asylum seekers at our southern border could theoretically be Mexicans, and the only asylum seekers at our northern border would be those seeking to flee Canada (which is understandable these days...) But what that also means is that Cubans coming directly to Florida are legit asylum seekers, whereas those coming across our southern border would not be. This is the difference with distinction. And in fact, it’s inarguable that Cuban refugees have the most legitimate asylum claim. The legacy Castro communist regime in Cuba is no doubt far more oppressive than Mexico’s government or even Justin Trudeau’s Canada. 

In terms of Cuban policy there is and historically has been a difference the reflects their plight. Most recently, the wet foot, dry foot policy ended by President Obama. The other which remains in force, is the 1966 law – The Cuban Adjustment Act. Under the law, any Cuban who has been legally admitted into the United States for a minimum of one year may legally remain in the United States as a permanent resident. So yes, Cubans are granted special consideration under federal law, but yes, there remains a right and wrong way for Cuban asylum seekers to go about seeking refuge. While the Biden administration has ironically been hostile to Cubans attempting to flee directly to Florida seeking asylum – which fits the definition of asylum seekers to a ‘T’, he’s obviously created an anything goes policy at the southern border. As a result, many Cubans have sought to cross the southern border – seeing that as the path of least resistance. If you don’t believe that two wrongs make a right – meaning President Biden’s violation of enforcing our own immigration and asylum laws doesn't make it ok to do the wrong thing in seeking asylum...than any Cuban coming across the southern border – is indeed an illegal immigrant. And if DeSantis is busing illegals to Delaware, then they’d potentially be on those buses too.  

Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.  

Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com  

Gettr, Parler & Twitter: @brianmuddradio  

iHeartRadio: Use the Talkback feature – the microphone button on our station’s page in the iHeart app.     

Cuba, Havana, Cuban flag with blue sky

Photo: Getty Images


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