Smuggling Cuban baseball players

A federal court in Miami is hearing the case of baseball smugglers. That is, the seemingly ever growing number of people trying to smuggle Cuban baseball players out of the country and bring them to the United States. Attorneys of five accused smugglers wanted to use the “wet foot/dry foot” immigration policy as defense, saying that once the men were in the U.S., everything was legal. “Wet foot/dry foot” refers to the bizarre idea that if a Cuban reaches U.S. land, he or she can obtain asylum, but if caught in the water, they usually can’t (there is a hearing at which they must prove a “well founded fear of persecution”).

The judge refused to let them use that argument, which is fortunate. Otherwise any criminal activity would be perfectly acceptable as long as everyone managed to reach the U.S.

The entire issue of smuggling Cubans is troubling. Last year I wrote about the book The Duke of Havana, about Orlando Hernández’s odyssey to the U.S., which covered the same issue. Yes, it’s absurd that players cannot leave the country legally. But it’s all about greed, where Cuban players are promised fat MLB contracts and then many (or even most) are discarded if they can’t make a team. Of course, these same smugglers will take their cut, and if there is no payoff then they are no longer interested in the player.