By Ken Hamblin Denver Post Columnist

Sunday, November 03, 2002 - After watching more than 200 Haitians break into the United States and scurry across a Miami causeway, I remarked on the radio - rather cynically, I might add - that the republic was acquiring a new batch of citizens.

Sure enough. The next day, a group of Haitian-American activists proved me right by angrily condemning American immigration policy that called for sending the Haitians back home and pressuring Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to demand that President George W. Bush issue an executive order to let the Haitians enter our country.

Haitian community leaders in Miami argue that while Haitians are routinely deported back to Haiti, Cuban emigres consistently are allowed to remain in the United States.

One fact Haitian activists manage to ignore is that Cubans have been given carte blanche with regard to entering the U.S. because there was a communist takeover in Cuba and they are deemed political refuges.

Thus, Congress voted to give Cubans who manage to set foot on U.S. soil immediate landed status.

Haitian-Americans may perceive this policy to be racism. I contend, however, that it isn't racial, it's political.

But there is an even greater question for the American people to ponder than whether Miami's Haitian-American community thinks compatriots from their motherland are receiving the short end of the landed-immigrant deal.

That question is whether Jeb and George Bush were set up by Haitian activists working in concert with the Democratic National Committee and African-Americans working to defeat the Florida governor at the polls this week.

My suspicions in this area grew while watching the telecast from tactically placed TV cameras as the first report of the Haitian break-in across a Miami causeway was reported to the American people.

The other thing that made me suspicious about the whole affair were the motorcars that stopped to pick up a mass of men, women and children illegals all making their break out of a stand of mangrove trees.

The moment I saw that, I knew it just wasn't right.

Would you stop to pick up men, women and children you didn't know swarming out of mangrove trees and load them into your car or truck? I wouldn't.

And as if that weren't enough, then came the icing on the cake - the convenient appearance of immigration and naturalization lawyers.

Media reports noted that while most of the Haitians were rounded up by police and immigration authorities, some had managed to slip away undetected.

Undetected to where? These were people who supposedly had no notion of exactly where they would land or exactly where they would go after doing so.

So where could they possibly slip away to? Is it possible the boat that sailed them to Miami navigated the shallow waters common to the area to a pre-arranged location where Haitian-American activists could have been patrolling to pick them up when they landed?

Why would Democrats lend their support to this kind of debacle? Because it would be a perfect dirty trick that could kill two political birds with one stone. First back Gov. Bush into a tight political corner over an issue he doesn't control.

And second, use the Haitian issue as an example of how indifferent President Bush is to the plight of black people in general.

One listener to my syndicated talk radio show responded to the Haitian news story by e-mail: "I find your premise interesting, that the Democrats are behind the Haitian arrivals in Florida. I don't know about that - but the Democrats will back Jeb Bush into a corner over it. If President Bush gets the hit for this, I think he deserves it because of his ignorant desire to grant amnesty to the illegal Mexicans living in this country. He sent the message that illegals won't be prosecuted for breaking our laws, so why shouldn't others flaunt them?"

In a close race like the one in Florida, it could be just the dirty trick needed to tip the political scales in favor of a Democratic victory.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2002