If Only All Immigrants Could Get Here as Easily as the Contreras Family

With all the talk this week of how wonderful it is for Yankees pitcher Jose Contreras being united with his family after his wife and daughters escaped Cuba on an illegal smuggler's boat last week, I can't help but think there is another side to it.

I've met so many families over the years who have had families overseas in desperate situations who could not get their families here, even when lives were in jeopardy. But because Jose is a sports star, and we give any Cuban who can reach our shores the fast track to citizenship, this family can enjoy a pleasure that thousands of others cannot.

I'm glad the Contreras family is reunited. But it's simply not fair that simply on the basis of the strong exile anti-Cuban population in the US who demands so much from the government (and usually gets it!), they're the only ones who can get this sort of treatment.