SICK PERSONS IN IMMIGRATION DETENTION FACE HARSH TREATMENT

The situation with persons caught up by ICE in immigration detention is beyond belief, like something horrible in Dostoevsky or Kafka.

Nina Bernstein describes many horrible events in today's The New York Times.

Writes Bernstein:

"The Obama administration has vowed to overhaul immigration detention, a haphazard network of privately run jails, federal centers and county cells where the government holds non citizens while it tries to deport them.

"But as the administration moves to increase oversight within the agency, the documents show how officials — some still in key positions — used their role as overseers to cover up evidence of mistreatment, deflect scrutiny by the news media or prepare exculpatory public statements after gathering facts that pointed to substandard care or abuse.

"As one man lay dying of head injuries suffered in a New Jersey immigration jail in 2007, for example, a spokesman for the federal agency told The Times that he could learn nothing about the case from government authorities. In fact, the records show, the spokesman had alerted those officials to the reporter’s inquiry, and they conferred at length about sending the man back to Africa to avoid embarrassing publicity."

I hope that Pres. Obama takes decisive action in reforming the antiquated and medieval practices in the Immigration Service. But I must say so far, Obama has seemed to put immigration on the back burner. He has dissed Latinos by sending in U.S. troops to be based in Colombia, and he has shown no inclination to review the failed Bush policy to the Castro brothers and Cuba. Furthermore, he has let Janet Napolitano, head of Homeland Security which includes ICE, continue with the harsh policy of immigration raids on workers suspected of being without proper documents.

WHY DID OBAMA RENEW U.S. EMBARGO OF CUBA?

If the choice is between siding with Pres. Obama or the Cuban foreign minister about ending the U.S. blockade of Cuba, I agree with the Cuban.

The BBC reports that foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez said that Cubans expect more from Obama than cruelly extending the Cuban embargo for yet another year.

Writes the BBC:

"Speaking at a news conference in Havana, Mr Rodriguez said the US sanctions were "part of the policy of total unilateral aggression and isolation" and should be "lifted unilaterally".

""Obama is a president who was elected on a platform of change - Americans voted for him because he promised change. Where is the change in the blockade against Cuba?" he said.

"He also warned that Cuba was not prepared to make any political or policy concessions in order to improve relations. . .

"Mr Rodriguez described Mr Obama as well-intentioned and intelligent, and also reiterated Cuba's offer to hold direct talks with the Obama administration."

What is the matter with Obama on U.S./Cuban relations? Cuba is signaling that it wants to ease ill will towards America and improve relations with the U.S. and Americans. I want Obama to respond positively and take the Cubans at their word.

Stop the embargo. Normalize relations with Cuba. Allow unrestricted travel. The U.S. policy of maintaining the embargo has failed for the last 47 years. Obama needs to be the one to end it once and for all.

OBAMA NEEDS TO END HOSTILE EMBARGO OF CUBA

Michael D. Shear reports in The Washington Post that Obama has lifted some restrictions in regard to travelling to Cuba and sending money.

Writes Shear:

"As a candidate, Obama promised to seek closer relations with Cuba, and courted Cuban voters in the key state of Florida. As president, he has signaled that he intends to move toward a greater openness.

"A White House aide said the president believes that democratic change will come to the Cuban nation more quickly if the United States reaches out to the people of Cuba and their relatives in the United States."

Obama is right. But his initial steps call for much more radical change in how the U.S. views Cuba and its political structure. I want to see all U.S. restrictions ended. To boycott Cuba is to hurt the Cuban people, to deny the ordinary Cubano food, medicine and the necessities of life. Boycotts and embargoes never work. They are used to punish political leaders of a country, but the only thing they do is to punish the ordinary citizen.

I call upon Barack Obama, end all embargoes, end all boycotts, stop this silly American ostracization of Cuba. As a genuine step towards this goal, I want to see Obama meet and talk with both Raul and Fidel Castro. Cuba and its leaders are not "enemies." All of the bellicosity emanates from the United States. It is time to begin a new era of friendship and harmony with Cuba and its people.

U.S. LOCKS CUBA OUT OF LATIN AMERICAN MEETING

Why can't Cuba and its representatives attend the Summit of America, a gathering of countries from Latin America and North America in Trinidad-Tobago beginning on April 17? Who made the decision not to invite Cuba?

The BBC reports that Fidel Castro asked the leaders of Latin and South America to bring up the subject of the U.S. embargo of Cuba. Writes the BBC:

"Fidel Castro has called on Latin American countries to support an end to Cuba's isolation when they meet the US president at a regional summit.

"Cuba is not invited to attend the Summit of the Americas, which opens in Trinidad and Tobago on 17 April.

"In a newspaper editorial, the former president said that the summit would be a "trial by fire" for the region.

"He urged leaders to ensure that both Cuba's isolation and the US trade embargo against it were on the agenda."

Has Obama forgot so soon his promise to talk with countries where there are philosophical and political differences? We know the Republicans would like nothing better than to bomb Cuba to the stone age, given their premise not to negotiate with "enemies." But I don't see how Obama could have approved excluding Cuba and its president Raul Castro.

Almost all the Latin countries support an end to the cruel and pointless U.S. embargo. The real victims of the U.S. action are the people of Cuba who are deprived of ordinary necessities of life. Raul and Fidel Castro are no worse as leaders than Mubarak of Egypt or King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, two "allies" of the U.S. Instead of continuing the embargo, we need to see Obama adopt a more realistic, less cruel, policy of treating Cuba and its people with respect.

Reports the BBC:

"Almost all the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean now support an end to the embargo and want Cuba re-admitted to the organisation of American states, says the BBC's Michael Voss, in Havana.

"Mr Castro said that he had seen a draft text of the final statement which the US wants to be signed at the summit. It contained "a great number of inadmissible concepts", he wrote, and did not acknowledge the calls for better Cuba-US ties.

""Who is now demanding our exclusion? Perhaps they don't understand that times of exclusionary agreements against our people have been left far behind," he wrote.

"US President Barack Obama has taken a less confrontational approach to the communist nation than his predecessor, George W Bush, our correspondent adds.
But his administration continues to insist that there must be progress towards democracy and on human rights before the trade embargo can be lifted."

BUSH DENIGRATES RAUL CASTRO, CALLS CUBAN REFORMS "SO CALLED"

Now George Bush says he will seek to change the U.S. law on trading with Cuba to allow Cubans in the U.S. to send cell phones to their relatives in Cuba.

Bush says this move is designed to see if "Raul" carries through with his "so called reforms."

Is it necessary for Mr. Bush to call everyone by his or her first name, even other world leaders? It seems contemptuous and condescending for Bush to call President Raul Castro by his first name. I get the impression first-naming other leaders is a technique for Bush to demonstrate his own "superiority."

Furthermore, what is achieved by terming Cuba's relations "so called reforms"? Today, Cubans have many more economic freedoms and liberties than in the past. Does Bush do any good to U.S.-Cuban relations by minimizing and questioning Raul Castro's reforms to date?

BUSH REFUSES TO THINK U.S. HOSTILITY TOWARDS CUBA EVEN AFTER CASTRO RETIRES

The U.S. foreign policy towards Cuba is one of the main reasons why we need Bush to leave office and Obama to come in. Bush refuses to rethink American foreign policy to Cuba even after Fidel Castro says his days in government are over. The U.S. maintains an economic blockade against Cuba and against the Cuban people. This is the message of Bush: we said we are punishing Castro but even when Castro departs, as he is now doing, we will maintain the blockade and punishment against the Cuban people themselves.

The U.S. needs to sit down with Raul Castro and the other Cuban leaders and work with them for the mutual benefit of both Americans and Cubans. Instead of treating Cuba as an "enemy" of the U.S., we need to initiate dialog and contact. We need to foster friendship and respect instead of hostility and animosity.

Friendship between Cuba and the U.S. will never come as long as Bush or the Republicans hold the White House.