Immigration Laws: May, 1998 - Number #12

The top-rated television station in Miami in February 1998 was WLTV, a Spanish-language station owned by the Los Angeles-based Univision network. Some 30 percent of Miami's 1.4 million television viewers are Hispanic. Nationwide, Univision is watched by an estimated 1.4 million households in prime time, compared to the nine million homes watching NBC.

Education.

There are 340,000 students enrolled in K-12 classes in Miami-Dade county public schools, and about 26 percent if them were born outside the United States. The top five nationalities of origin are: Cubans, 15,881; Nicaraguans, 11,947; Haitians, 6,448; Colombians 4,855; and Dominicans, 4,234. The schools spent about $5,900 for each foreign-born student in 1996-97, compared to $5,100 for English-speaking pupils.

There were about 28 million children of immigrants in the US in 1940, and about 28 million Americans with immigrant parents in the US today, including 11 million under age 18.

Throughout Latin America, most K-12 teachers are poorly paid, and many hold second jobs to support themselves. One reason is that elites in many countries did not think it important to provide a good general education for everyone. In Bolivia, for example, 55 percent of the education budget goes to universities; children of the elite, the argument runs, go to private K-12 schools, and then to good public universities that cost little. As a result, many middle and working class families are now putting their children into private schools.

In many countries, teachers unions are controlled by leftists who resist change. In Mexico, for example, the 1.2 million teachers must join the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE), which is a pillar of the PRI. In many countries, the result is similar to the refrain under Communism: "We pretend to teach, and the government pretends to pay us."

Cuba.

Cuba is an island of 11 million residents about 90 miles south of Florida. On February 7, 1962, the US imposed an embargo on trade with Cuba in retaliation for Castro's expropriation of property owned by foreigners. Nearly 6,000 property claims have been certified by the United States; more than half of them, with a 1972 value of $1.8 billion, are held by 30 US corporations. Under the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, the US embargo of Cuba can be lifted only after those claims are settled by a democratic government that does not include Fidel or Raul Castro.

Despite the 36-year old trade embargo against Cuba, US firms are exploring business opportunities in Cuba, anticipating changes. Hotel owners think that, if Americans were allowed to visit Cuba, the annual number of foreign visitors would increase from 1.2 to 10 million.

American residents can legally send $1,200 a year to relatives in Cuba. The US dollar is the second currency of the country.

Four Cuban baseball players and a coach were denied political asylum in the Bahamas on April 1. There are 337 migrants, including 138 Cubans, being held in a detention center in Nassau. One of the players was issued a Japanese renewable spousal visa good until April 2001 because his wife is Japanese; the others are trying to get visas from Costa Rica.

On April 14, Costa Rican police arrested top immigration officials, charging that they improperly awarded visas to Cubans in exchange for money. Humanitarian and cultural visas, which are normally issued at no cost, were sold for $5,000 to $7,000 each. In 1997, of the 3,504 Cubans who received the such visas, 2,414 later left Costa Rica, usually for the US.

More Cubans may be leaving the island on small boats. On April 1, 31 Cubans landed on Cayman Brac, a part of the Cayman Islands that is about 80 miles off the southeast Cuban coast. This is the first group of rafters to land in the Cayman Islands since 1,200 Cubans landed there over a two-month period in 1994. Under a 1994 agreement, the Caymans repatriate Cuban migrants who land illegally if they do not have a valid claim for refugee status.

The US Coast Guard has returned 275 Cubans picked up at sea to Cuba since May 1995.

Zita Arocha, "Univision Tops Miami's Nielsen Ratings," Washington Post April 24, 1998. Jessica Robertson, "Cuban Players Denied Refugee Status," Associated Press, April 1, 1998. Maria Travierso, "Hondurans will protest refusal to halt deportations," Miami Herald, April 11, 1998. Maria Morales, "Immigrant youths leap schooling hurdles here," Miami Herald, August 3, 1997.