In 1995, then-President Bill Clinton enacted the “wet foot-dry foot” immigration policy, revising the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966. The policy essentially allowed those Cuban refugees who put their feet on American soil on their own to stay, and in about one year they received residency in the U.S. This policy applied only to Cubans, however. Recall that, during this period, a ship ran aground on our eastern shore and many of the Chinese immigrants aboard jumped into the waters and made it to America; several drowned. All the immigrants were repatriated to mainland China, their fates unknown.
Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng recently sought asylum through the U.S. embassy in Beijing.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got involved in a dilemma: actively seeking agreements overseas that abrogate Americans’ constitutional rights at home, supporting policies that sent Chen’s fellow Chinese to unknown fates, and Clinton has all the while told the Chinese government that the Chinese violate human rights. Apparently Secretary Clinton suffers a different type of blindness than Chen Guangcheng.
Peter L. Williamson
Vancouver
