Refugee Rights

Court backs jailed Cuban

For the past seven months, Cuban Refugee Pedro Rodriguez, 48, has been in Leavenworth, Kans., in a maximum-security federal prison. He was shipped there in June soon after admitting to immigration officials that he had a record of four convictions in his homeland (two suitcase thefts that he maintained were necessary "to clothe my family," attempted burglary and a prison escape). Rodriguez was waiting at Leavenworth while Washington tried to persuade Havana to reclaim him and about 1,800 other "undesirables." So far, the Cuban government has demurred. Since Rodriguez was never officially admitted to the U.S., he is considered to be technically "waiting at the border" and thus is not safeguarded by the Constitution--as even illegal aliens are.

Last week, however, Federal District Court Judge Richard Dean Rogers ruled in Topeka that Rodriguez is entitled at least to the protection of international law, the United Nations charter and basic human rights. His extended imprisonment, Rogers concluded, violated all three. Citing testimony by University of Kansas Sociologist William Robert Arnold, the judge said that inmates detained without a time limit endure "more mental strain than an ordinary prisoner." He ordered the Government to prove at a hearing that Rodriguez is dangerous to society or else grant him some form of relief within 90 days, ranging from assignment to a refugee camp to outright release.

Though Rodriguez was the sole petitioner, the Topeka ruling probably will speed the release of all 234 Cubans at Leavenworth. Moreover, it could pay dividends for other "undesirable" refugees in federal prisons, who make up just over 1% of those who fled Cuba last year for the land of "open hearts and open arms" that was promised by President Carter. Of the 800 crammed into a penitentiary in Atlanta, six are awaiting judicial action on petitions similar to Rodriguez's. Most reportedly reckon that if they must be locked up somewhere, they would prefer to be back in Cuba, where at least the food is better. qed

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