White Lies: The Pen
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The Mariel Boatlift - The Cuban Invasion
In 1981, just four months after Judge Shue released Sir O'Ogonzalez, Attorney General Smith appeared on Firing Line to talk about American immigration policy. The event which made immigration suddenly an important issue in the way it hadn't been in the public consciousness was the Mariel Boatlift,. About 125,000 people were moved from Cuba into the U.S., many of them working class, dark skin, single young men. In all of this, the administration's linking of immigration with crime, the alarmist language about losing control of our borders, was building toward a new immigration policy.
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