By Nicole Demouth
Refugees pose a threat
In the 1920s, Ellis Island closed because the number of immigrants arriving at port had slowly decreased after immigration restrictions were implemented. Today, Ellis Island accepts ferries carrying curious tourists and families retracing the steps of their ancestors. All that remains of Ellis are the walkways and whitecaps of over a million journeys. Times have changed.
Due to the impatience of outsiders who yearn to start a new life and the recent blunderings of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, common American citizens are the ones who find themselves blamed for cruelty and overly patriotic reasoning when faced with protecting their rights and property over numerous incursions of refugees.
Miami was recently faced with the arrival of a wooden ship carrying Haitian refugees fleeing their country for a better life in America. Unfortunately, many people watching their televisions saw these Haitians as desperate and chaotic, not to mention dangerous at a time when Homeland Security is supposed to be in full force. As always, there was another side.
When some of these Haitians were sent back, a group called the Haitian Women of Miami couldn’t understand why the Coast Guard and the government would not respect their wishes and let them stay. It isn’t a hard concept. It is illegal. Moreso, it opens law to vulnerability if those outside of their country who are fleeing or facing persecution and/or individuals who have already made it into a country such as the U.S., but are still illegal aliens, reach U.S. soil.
Imagine that I’ve dedicated 40 years of my life to the same employer. I’ve spent years planning a retirement home along the coast and some land to go along with it. I go through with the move, the time, the cost, everything. I finally settle down, and one day, I look outside to see 200 Haitian men, women, and children running across my property unsupervised.
Yes, this is a hypothetical depiction based on an actual event, but the fact that the ship ran aground and the passengers rushed the shore sets us up for a terrifying possibility facing all citizens who own property on or along U.S. borders, as well as landowners in general.
If someone from the boat reaches the land that I own, slips amid the chaos, falls and hurts themself, they can virtually, if not completely, own my 40 years with that one company and everything I earned that went with it in a lawsuit. Dead issue.
Under the “attractive nuisance” doctrine, the landowner is responsible for any injuries sustained to persons (usually children) who are attracted to the premise. Now, how attractive might U.S. soil look to refugees fleeing persecution?
The Coast Guard fleet that responded to the Haitian ship had differentiated them between a “threat” and “no threat.” Consensus: they weren’t a threat. So, as the passengers were jumping overboard, the Coast Guard helped them so that they would not drown. If something had happened to one or some of the Haitians in the process, there could be at least one lawyer out there who’d call “foul” and sue our very own Coast Guard for wrongful death or negligence.
Whether or not a judge would approve it remains to be seen, but even the prosecution of the six men in charge of smuggling the aliens is eating our tax dollars. You can bet that the hypothetical case above would do the same, and we don’t need it.
Groups such as the Haitian Women of Miami care enough to protest the U.S. immigration stance, but not enough to warn their own people that the mere trip is a danger in itself? Building up someone’s dreams only to send them back? That doesn’t sound like caring to me.
It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from. I also think the Cuban Adjustment Act under Lyndon B. Johnson is a joke. It isn’t fair. Come to the U.S. legally. It’s respectful. It’s smart. I wonder what it would be like if the workings of Ellis Island were still in effect? Many of our ancestors saved and sailed. What makes others any different?
