One of the newest members of the Miami-Dade County commission is condemning Florida International University for inviting an author to speak about her new book examining advantages that federal immigration law granted Cubans who immigrated to the United States.
Kevin Cabrera, who was elected to the District 6 seat on November 8 after being endorsed by former President Donald Trump, called the book ‘Cuban Privilege’ by Boston University professor Susan Eva Eckstein “hate filled” and “anti-Cuban.”
In an interview with the Miami Herald, Eckstein said she was shocked by the criticism and said the book is an exploration of how U.S. policy has treated Cuban immigrants as compared to immigrants from other countries.
“It’s a book that documents the unique entitlements Cubans have gotten over the years. I don’t hold it against them,” Eckstein said. “I say the U.S. should give more equity and equality to other immigrants, not to take rights away from Cubans.”
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Cabrera, the son of Cuban immigrants who told the paper he has not read the book, said he based the statement on excerpts and said a public university should not be involved in promoting the book.
The Cuban Adjustment Act allows immigrants from Cuba to remain in the United States under certain legal circumstances. The “wet-foot, dry-foot” policy in place since 1995 which allowed Cuban immigrants to remain legally if they reached U.S. soil was formally ended by former President Barack Obama in the final days of his second term.
FIU’s Cuban Research Institute director, Jorge Duany, wrote a letter to Cabrera saying the event was an example of the university encouraging “constructive conversation, differing points of view, and engagement with multiple perspectives.”
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The school invited Cabrera to attend the December 9 event at Books & Books in Coral Gables, but the commissioner has not confirmed if he would.
