Cuban Doctors Defecting From Venezuela
Captain Ed has some things to say about this story
It seems that Cuban doctors have been volunteering to help out with Cuba's friend and ally, Chavez, in helping out his tottering health system. The doctors get paid far more than they would in Cuba but their expenses eat up most of what they earn.
So . . . surprise, surprise . . . instead of quitting and going back to Cuba over 500 Cuban health-care workers and their dependents have chosen to defect instead, no doubt hoping to find some way to enter the United States.
This is where I start to lose consciousness . . .
It seems that many of these doctors are in limbo, hanging out in neighboring Colombia or applying for asylum at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas while the United States carefully investigates each one to make sure that they are not spies for the Cuban government.
While I applaud our government's caution in this matter is seems almost silly to the point of absurdity to compare how we are treating these educated and skilled men and women (who are defecting from a totalitarian government we have been at odds with for nearly 50 years) with the millions of undocumented, unscreened, illegal folks from Mexico and other points south of the border who seem to be crossing back and forth across our border each day with hardly a "how-do-you-do."
A GAO report released early in 2005 estimated that 29% of all inmates in state and federal prisons were illegals. This means that 4% of our population (12 million illegals out of a total population of 300 million) accounts for well over one-fourth of our criminal prison population. That disproportionate statistic should provide at least some impetus to target this particular demographic for special attention!
Having said this, I would like to see our government take at least the same measure of caution in checking the vitae of 12 million illegals as they are taking with these Cuban defectors.
Otherwise, in all fairness, they should simply transport the Cuban doctors to the Mexican side of the U.S. border and tell them to just walk in and make themselves at home along with everyone else.
It seems that Cuban doctors have been volunteering to help out with Cuba's friend and ally, Chavez, in helping out his tottering health system. The doctors get paid far more than they would in Cuba but their expenses eat up most of what they earn.
So . . . surprise, surprise . . . instead of quitting and going back to Cuba over 500 Cuban health-care workers and their dependents have chosen to defect instead, no doubt hoping to find some way to enter the United States.
This is where I start to lose consciousness . . .
It seems that many of these doctors are in limbo, hanging out in neighboring Colombia or applying for asylum at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas while the United States carefully investigates each one to make sure that they are not spies for the Cuban government.
While I applaud our government's caution in this matter is seems almost silly to the point of absurdity to compare how we are treating these educated and skilled men and women (who are defecting from a totalitarian government we have been at odds with for nearly 50 years) with the millions of undocumented, unscreened, illegal folks from Mexico and other points south of the border who seem to be crossing back and forth across our border each day with hardly a "how-do-you-do."
A GAO report released early in 2005 estimated that 29% of all inmates in state and federal prisons were illegals. This means that 4% of our population (12 million illegals out of a total population of 300 million) accounts for well over one-fourth of our criminal prison population. That disproportionate statistic should provide at least some impetus to target this particular demographic for special attention!
Having said this, I would like to see our government take at least the same measure of caution in checking the vitae of 12 million illegals as they are taking with these Cuban defectors.
Otherwise, in all fairness, they should simply transport the Cuban doctors to the Mexican side of the U.S. border and tell them to just walk in and make themselves at home along with everyone else.
posted by Bird of Paradise at 4:35 PM
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