Patriot Act bars Cuban rebels once backed by CIA from asylum
WASHINGTON -- Four decades ago, thousands of Cubans took to the Escambray mountains in a CIA-backed guerrilla war against Fidel Castro. Today, US law brands them as terrorists.
In an ironic twist of fate, 320 Cubans on the island with links to that armed revolt are having problems winning US political asylum because the Patriot Act bars that status for terrorists and people who help them.
The Department of Homeland Security said the holdups affect 160 asylum applications involving 320 people who joined or helped the anti-Castro guerrillas, as well as some of the close relatives of the asylum seekers.
Bill Strassberger, a spokesman for US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Homeland Security branch that deals with asylum requests, said lawyers from Homeland Security as well as the State and Justice departments are trying to resolve the legal tangle of who's a terrorist, and whether civilians who provide willing or unwilling support to terrorists should be denied asylum.
''We're trying to develop a policy that could be used across the board for any types of cases . . . to develop a process that will allow us to exercise discretion," Strassberger said. ''Until that time, we're not denying cases, but we're not approving cases either."
The Escambray guerrillas and many other anti-Castro movements were supported by the CIA in the early 1960s, with food, weapons, even explosives meant for sabotage.
All the groups were wiped out by the late 1960s by Castro troops in what the government called a ''struggle against bandits."
Cuban exile groups are stung by the plight of the asylum seekers.
''This really hurts because these are the people that have been forgotten by history and the world," said Ramon Saul Sanchez, a Cuban exile activist with the Miami-based Democracy Movement. Most of the guerrillas got no CIA help, he said.
''They fought with dignity . . . and practically naked, starved, and with their bare hands, they resisted the dictatorship that is today the despair of the Cuban people," he added.
Citing privacy concerns, Citizenship and Immigration Services would not identify the Cuban asylum applicants.
They said only that all the applications were made after the Patriot Act was passed in October 2001.
It was not clear why the asylum seekers did not apply before the act was approved.
The Patriot Act defines terrorism as ''any activity which is unlawful under the laws of the place where it is committed."
Strassberger said the definition also includes any use of explosives, firearms, or other weapons ''with the intent to endanger individuals or cause substantial damage to property."
Strassberger said that ''in broad terms" there are no exceptions for people who were ''forced to provide a meal or an animal" to rebel groups, but that government lawyers are working on drafting a waiver to benefit those who supported terrorists because they had no other choice.
The International Rescue Committee, an organization based in New York that helps victims of political violence, has described the Patriot Act's impact on some refugees as ''Kafkaesque."
