Cuban privilege : the making of immigrant inequality in America / Susan Eva Eckstein.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface: Privileged Cubans -- The making of Cuban-American exceptionalism, 1959-1979 -- The privileging of Cuban immigrants in the U.S., 1959-1979 -- The immigration crisis of 1980 : Carter Administration privileging of Cubans anew, spillover benefits for Haitians -- Delinking Cubans from Haitians : the deepening of Cuban privileging and the turn against Haitians under the Reagan and Bush I Administrations -- Taking with one hand, giving with the other : Clinton Administration retraction and expansion of Cuban American immigrant entitlements -- From extension to retraction of Cuban immigrant entitlements amidst mainly exclusion of Haitians : the George W. Bush and Barack Obama Administrations -- From heaven to hell under the Trump Administrations : walls for Cubans after all -- Exceptionalism in practice? Actual immigration, lessons learned.

"In 1991, during George H. W. Bush's Presidency, the U.S. Coast Guard stopped a leaky Haitian fishing boat carrying 161 Haitians and 2 Cubans who the Haitians had picked up in a gesture of brotherhood. Two years later, when Bill Clinton was President, a boat carrying seven Cubans and ten Haitians landed in Florida. All those aboard the boats wanted to come to the land of opportunity. They arrived, however, without U.S.-granted immigration visas. The Immigration and Naturalization Service, nonetheless, admitted the Cubans. In contrast, the Haitians were whisked off to detention facilities. Almost all were repatriated. The Clinton Administration refused to admit the Haitians even though Clinton had promised during his campaign that, if elected, he would end the George H.W. Bush Administration's cruel practice of sending unauthorized Haitians back to a brutal dictatorship. With the support of Haitian voters, Clinton hoped to make President Bush, running for reelection, a one-term president. Clinton succeeded in winning the election, but even before taking office he announced that he would continue to enforce Bush's Haitian repatriation policy. How could the Presidents treat Cubans and Haitians so differently?"-- Provided by publisher.