U.S. May Ease Cuba Immigration Rules

Roberto Ramirez found success in Tampa at his La Herencia De Cuba cigar factory after fleeing Cuba using forged documents. His wife and sons did the same. A policy shift could give his other relatives expedited entry.

CRYSTAL L. LAUDERDALE / Tribune

By JULIE PACE and CHRIS ECHEGARAY The Tampa Tribune

Published: Aug 9, 2006

TAMPA - Roberto Ramirez tears into a large tobacco leaf, his weathered hands nimbly rolling the pieces into a fragrant cigar.

It's a process he knows well. Ramirez, 70, learned to roll cigars more than 50 years ago in his native Cuba, earning $15 a month.

By the time Fidel Castro came to power, Ramirez had his own business. "Everything you had belonged to Fidel," he said.

In Ybor City, Ramirez and his wife and two sons work for themselves at La Herencia De Cuba. Lately, as he sits with a burning cigar in his mouth, rolling 100 others a day, he thinks about the relatives he left behind - and a proposal that could bring them here.

Since Fidel Castro's abdominal surgery last week and cession of power to his brother, Raul, U.S. officials fear instability and a mass exodus of Cubans on rafts and boats.

Under a Bush administration proposal, Cubans who are U.S. citizens or residents may apply for an expedited entry for family members. Current laws created an immigration backup, with 10,000 Cubans waiting for U.S. visas.

Ramirez, his wife and two children couldn't wait. They used forged documents to enter 14 years ago.

It's a risky process, but in the early 1990s, Ramirez saw no other option. As the communist regime of the Soviet Union fell apart, so did its financial support for Cuba.

"You were with [Castro] or you were starving," he said.

Ramirez, the son of a tobacco farmer, grew up poor in the Cuban countryside. He opened a small cigar shop in 1959, and it got off to a successful start.

Castro came into power the same year. Ramirez lost his shop and took a job in Cuba's largest cigar factory. He was named Cuba's top cigar roller several times, but his wages didn't increase.

In 1992, Ramirez got the fake documents he needed to get out. His route took him to the Dominican Republic, Haiti and, finally, Miami. There he reunited with his wife, Clara, who made her way into the United States through Puerto Rico.

The couple became the point of contact for other family members hoping to escape, including their two children, Roberto Jr. and Abraham, who also used forged documents.

"It's the only way," Abraham Ramirez, 34, said.

Policy Revision Looms

Changes in Cuban immigration policy could be announced as early as this week, the Bush administration says.

Immigration policy experts say the Bush proposal is in anticipation of a possible migration emergency from the island.

"It's a shrewd thing to do," said Doris Meissner, a Washington-based Migration Policy Institute senior fellow and former commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which now comes under the heading of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"They are telling family members here not to send boats," she said. "Obviously it's a concern. Family members were sending boats to Cuba."

Those who favor tighter immigration laws say reunification of families is not an excuse to open the borders.

"When Castro departs from the scene, family reunification ought to take place in Cuba, not in the United States," said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation of American Immigration Reform.

"It doesn't shock me. This administration is very clear. It essentially supports open borders."

Experts long have maintained that the United States has preferential immigration standards for Cubans, who are subject to the "wet foot-dry foot" policy. It allows Cubans to stay if they reach U.S. soil. They are returned to Cuba if they are stopped at sea.

Mayra Calo, a Tampa lawyer and Central Florida vice president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said it is unfair to offer protected status for one group and not others.

"It's hypocritical to have this just for Cubans," she said. "What about the 11 million immigrants already here? If anything, this distracts from the bigger picture."

Cuban Heritage

Cubans are eligible for the same visa lottery extended to people in other countries who want to move to the United States.

A handful of Roberto Ramirez's cousins in Cuba have won that lottery and are on the waiting list. Older family members such as Roberto and Clara Ramirez's siblings say they are too old and have stopped trying to leave.

Those who are here in the family business on Seventh Avenue are finding success. La Herencia De Cuba means "Cuban heritage."

Ramirez sends some money to family in Cuba.

Still, for those on the island, Abraham Ramirez said, the sense of urgency is growing.

He wonders what effect the Bush proposal will have, and a faster process still might not get all his family here.

Besides, he said, it's not a new immigration policy many Cuban-Americans want. It's a free Cuba.

"There is going to be democracy in Cuba," he said.

Reporter Julie Pace can be reached at jpace@tampatrib.com or (813) 865-1505. Reporter Chris Echegaray can be reached at cechegaray@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7920.