the true immigrant's dream...

[phredgreen]

<i>as seen here: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald...al/5963570.htm</i>

<b>Rafters wash up on SoBe, then belly up to the bar
BY RICHARD BRAND
rbrand@herald.com</b>

The Clevelander Hotel bar -- famous for hosting wild bachelor parties and spring break wet T-shirt fiestas -- was the site of an unusual gathering this week: the landing of five Cuban migrants on neon-lit Ocean Drive.

After arriving on shore late Tuesday, the men walked across the sand and made the packed South Beach bar their first stop in South Florida.

''They asked the night manager for asylum,'' said Ryan Hammons, a supervisor.

Instead, they got beers, T-shirts and a round of applause.

''Half the bar, three-quarters of the bar got up to see the guys,'' said Luis Olivera, 30, a front desk clerk who was on duty that night.

Chad Landry, a 37-year-old salesman on a business trip from Central Florida, said he paid for the beers and Clevelander T-shirts because he was so moved.

'I've always seen it on TV and I've always watched these guys coming over. These guys swim or take a boat and they have the law that if you make it to land, you can stay. One of them said, `We just came from Cuba.' And we were, like, 'Oh my God.' ''

Bartenders called Miami Beach police, who turned over the group to the U.S. Border Patrol on Wednesday morning. ''They were wet, they were shivering,'' Olivera said.

But by the time police took them into custody at 11 p.m. -- about 20 minutes after their arrival -- all in the group appeared healthy and in good spirits, said Bobby Hernandez, a police spokesman.

''They definitely didn't look like they were on the ocean for a significant amount of time. They looked fine,'' he said.

The five men have been identified as Jose Valdivia Quinones, 29; Andres Araluce, 41; Jorge Granado, 35; Berto Quinones, 28; and Miguel Angel Perez, 41.

''They claimed they came over on a raft and that they were picked up offshore by a passerby boat and dropped off on 10th and the Beach,'' Hernandez said.

He said the group was greeted by relatives at Miami Beach police headquarters and then taken into custody by Border Patrol at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Under the United States' wet foot/dry foot policy, Cubans who land on U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay.

After being processed by Border Patrol officers at their Pembroke Pines offices, the group was taken to Krome detention center in West Miami-Dade County, said Robert Montemayor, a Border Patrol spokesman.

Barbara Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, could not predict how long the group would be held there.

''We don't speculate as to when they're going to be released from our custody,'' she said. Montemayor said the Border Patrol was investigating the circumstances surrounding the group's arrival.

so these guys truly live the american dream... they get here and have a brew. too funny.

now on to a more serious topic that this article discusses... what are your feelings about letting people who enter the united states illegally stay, when there are so many people who try legitimately and fail? let's discuss your feelings about the us's immigrations policy.

[clavus]

Um, shouldn't this be in the Politics Forum. I think it should.

I have a sense about these things. I start to reply, then I get a preminition that a lot of people are going to be pissed off at me.

It must be politics

[HeyAgain]

The government should impose a fee on them, if they are permitted to stay, that they have to pay back to prove that they are productive citizens, not merely individuals looking for government hand-outs.

[Magpie0001]

Originally posted by HeyAgain
The government should impose a fee on them, if they are permitted to stay, that they have to pay back to prove that they are productive citizens, not merely individuals looking for government hand-outs.

A fee?

[ShadowWraith]

well, not so much a fee, but i think the government needs to check in on them in say 6 months or so and make sure they have gotten a decent job, housing, etc., and can contribute as an american citizen.

[Macheath]

I hate (hate, hate, hate, hate) the politicians who demonize refugees for being "queue jumpers". Where's the queue when your life is in danger? In the world's worst places the queue is a myth; dishonest politicians misrepresent how the system of international immigration laws work. They present genuine refugees as a menace whose purpose is to somehow suck a rich country dry. They feed lurid horror stories to lower middle class joes who are swept into a wild fervour of calls to "blow them out of the water on sight". They then further feed on this hate to win elections.

The cunts who currently run my country went into the 2001 election with a pack of lies about illegal immigrants; they lied and said these boat people threw their own children into the sea, they spent obscene amounts of money building pre-fabricated Gitmo like prisons in the middle of the Pacific Ocean - all to keep them out of Australian territory and in a legal limbo that will last years.

These people practice self-harm and riot because of the conditions in our desert detention centers. All the while our vile Prime Minister crows and preens himself because the 2001 election was won on the backs of refugees and his "legacy" is now intact. I will try to dig some informative links for people who are not familiar with this issue and what happened in Australia.

I'm sorry to be writing this because the story above really is wonderful and I don't want to take away from a really nice story about kind hearted people.

I was going to write what I wrote sooner or later and I hope after I cool off a bit I can get some positivity or constructive discussion from this thread.

[WhoaitsZ]

our ancestors (Americans) took over this country. they massacred only God knows how many people, including women and children, so they could take over and have 'freedom'.

they used such tactics as making a gift to people full of a disease that killed off a huge ammount of people. they broke treaties, the raped the country thoroughly so they could be free.


so when i see some other person from another country cross over, legally or not, I am happy for them. I can't allow myself to grow too hostile if they come here and live. my ancestors hands are caked with blood and misdeeds so i could live here. who the hell am i to deny someone else?