[StratComm]

...either for their determination, or their knack for finding vintage American cars.  Must be pretty bad to risk it twice.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/02/04/cuba.car.ap/index.html

[karajorma]

What really annoys me is that these people have shown more ingenuity, bravery and drive than most americans ever show in their life and yet they don't allow them in.

[Knight Templar]

True, but you'd think they'd figure out that bright green vehicles tend to stick out in a blue ocean.

[Bobboau]

30 years from now, they will succeed when piloting a craft build from advanced carbon fibers and radar absorbing polimers

[Beowulf]

Let them in! We need more ingenuity in America! See, things like this should be tests of citizenship. Now just make them learn English.

[Dough with Fish]

You know, I didn't think people still did things like that anymore. You know how comedians and tv are always making fun of it, but you always shurg it off and go "Yeah, but this **** dosent happen anymore"

And, I for one, am glad that they are getting turned around. Am I the only person that thinks immigration laws need to get harsher?

[Corsair]

Coooooooooooooooooool....
Bunch of nutters, but that's the best type. Most interesting people are all insane.

[J3Vr6]

Dude, you guys laugh at the Cubans for how they get here.  But does anyone know, really know, how life is in Cuba?  You think things are so great there that that's the reason they're leaving?  You think he's crazy to do it a second time?  You try living off half a bar of soap, in a family of 5, for 3 months.  And that's just friggin soap, imagine food.  I have my aunt still over there with her family, and when she visits here, she CRIES when she has to go back to the island.  Life is so different here compared to over there.  She can't stay because she has too much family there to leave behind.

This idea these guys had was way smarter than sticking your family on a piece of wood or an inner tube to get across 90 miles to Florida.  Did you guys know 1 in 4 cubans that try the trek never make it?  The situation is horrible in Cuba.  People rather chance death than live under the oppression.  In 1994, there was an estimated 2,000 cubans trying to raft out A DAY.  Do the math and see how many of those didn't make it... every day.  I think this year they already have 1,000 or so rafters.

How do I feel about the immigration law?   ...  I don't know.  Currently it's a "you make it to land, you're a free man" type of policy where if the rafter actually makes it to US soil (or beach) before they're picked up by the coast guard, then they are granted asylum.  They still have to go thru an asylum trial, but at least they're on US soil.  If the coast guard picks them up, it's back to the sh*t dictatorship.

I don't favor automatic asylum or letting everyone in (especially when we have such a backward law regarding the haitian) but being cuban myself and having family still over there, knowing how bad life is over there, I don't think I could possibly turn my back and send them where they came from.

[Martinus]

Originally posted by Bobboau
30 years from now, they will succeed when piloting a craft build from advanced carbon fibers and radar absorbing polimers

[color=66ff00]Nah, they'll get so pissed at the american coastguard by then that they'll surface 50 miles from the east coast and drop 22 MERV 6's on the eastern seaboard.

Then they'll go celebrate in europe.
[/color]

[StratComm]

Hey, you have to have respect for people that try this sort of thing, but we can't just let every Cuban who wants asylum into the US.  Not even all those who get in their boats and try to sail across, there are simply too many of them.  Not to mention the fact that if the patrols were to stop, even more would try to make the voyage.  And besides, 30 years from now, Castro will be dead and the government will have turned over in Cuba, or all of the population will have attempted to escape.  What I don't understand is why they all have to head for Florida, knowing that the coast guard is already out there in force.

[delta_7890]

Originally posted by StratComm
What I don't understand is why they all have to head for Florida, knowing that the coast guard is already out there in force.

Because it's closest, and the easiest to get to from Cuba?