Elian Redux

[Paul Finkelman]

I am with Michael on changing our immigration laws.  But, until we do, it seems
horribly wrong to have affirmative action for Cubans and no on else.

Without trying to ressurrect the enslavement debates, I think that we need to be
able to draw distinctions between groups of people that are mistreated, and
enslaved, because of their ethnicity (German Jews in the 1930s; Serbs in Croatia;
Croats in Serbia; Albanians in Serbia and Croatia), people who are oppressed for
their politics (open opponents of Castro; black activists in the old South
Africa; opponents of various Latin American dictators); furthermore we must be
careful not to lump in with these groups people are not essentially political  in
their home country, but are simply living in poor nations or under repressive
regimes (like Elian's mother in Cuba);  these people are not "slaves" by any
reasonable understanding of the term. Nor are they normally entitled to political
asylum.

I did misunderstand Michael's statement on prosecutions, but I would assume that
that Juan Miguel could not be be prosecuted if he allowed Elian to remain, since
he violated no Cuban law by bringing him out of the country.   But, maybe someone
who knows more about Cuban law can answer that question.

--
Paul Finkelman
Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law
University of Tulsa College of Law
3120 East Fourth Place
Tulsa, OK  74104-2499

918-631-3706
Fax  918-631-2194
paul-finkelman at utulsa.edu