President Bush Should Ask Carter for advice

So former President Carter welcomed immigrants. The Bush administration should take notes.

I read an article in yesterday's Fresno Bee that, twenty-five years ago this month, a boatlift brought 125,000 Cubans to South Florida (from April to September 1980). Carter's policy was called "open arms and open hearts."

Apparently, the boatlift happened because on April 1, 1980, a bus driver wanted to leave Cuba so badly that he crashed the gates of an embassy in Havana. Days later, ten thousand people went to the embassy to seek asylum. So the United States and other countries tried to organize a humanitarian airlift and, to make a long story short, Fidel Castro opened up the port of Mariel to anyone wanting to leave. So 125,000 people took him up on the offer.

Regarding borders, not a lot has happened here over the past 25 years. People are still trying to cross and others are trying to prevent them from doing so. So much for "open arms and open hearts."

I think it's time for Bush to ask Carter for some advice. After all, he did win a Nobel Peace Prize.