Thread: Congress: Cuban welfare abuses must end

Congress: Cuban welfare abuses must end

Cubans now can come to the U.S.," get benefits and in essence go live in Cuba."

Members of Congress say it's time to overhaul a system that allows Cubans to collect U.S. welfare as persecuted refugees and then travel back and forth to the island.

Widespread exploitation of Cubans' unique immigration status, documented in a Sun Sentinel investigation this month, has prompted calls for reform – many of them coming from Cuban-Americans embarrassed by the problem.

Cuban-American congressional leaders agree the U.S. must tighten laws that allow abuses of the special treatment Cuban immigrants have enjoyed for decades.

"It is outrageous that America's generosity toward Cuban nationals is being taken advantage of by those who abuse the law," said Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, the son of Cuban immigrants. "If you keep returning to the country you are supposedly fleeing, it's hard to argue that you are a refugee and deserve the assistance that comes with it."

Easing tensions between the two Cold War foes have opened travel between the nations, making it easier to take advantage.
"Now there's virtually unlimited Cuban-American travel, which has, frankly, just led to this skyrocketing of abuse," said U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami. Cubans today can come to the U.S., "get benefits and in essence go live in Cuba."

Questioned: Congress on special treatment for Cubans

The Sun Sentinel's "Easy Money"investigation detailed how some Cuban immigrants exploit their unique access to U.S. welfare by using the money to support their lives on the communist island.

That investigation followed another Sun Sentinel series,"Plundering America," that documented how America's extraordinary Cuba policies have enabled crooks from the island to rob U.S. businesses and government programs like Medicare of more than $2 billion over two decades – and often get away with it.


Unfair Advantage: Cubans Exploit U.S. Good Will

Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, chairman of a Senate immigration subcommittee, called the Sun Sentinel findings "shocking and sobering.''

"Clearly, strong action must be taken at the local and federal level to end these abuses," he said. "Every dollar wrongly spent is a dollar wrongly taken straight from the pocket of a dutiful working American."

Frustrated by the "carte blanche" asylum given to Cubans, one Arizona Republican is going so far as to propose repeal of U.S. policies that let Cubans who reach U.S. soil swiftly become permanent residents, even when they come without permission.

"It's time we level the playing field," U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, whose district is largely Mexican, told the Sun Sentinel. "I'm prepared to make sure that the rest of the Hispanic community knows there's a select group that gets to the front of the line ahead of them." He said he plans to introduce a bill soon.

But Cubans in Congress remain protective of the special treatment long afforded to Cuban immigrants and are wrestling with how to still welcome those who are politically persecuted without fleecing American taxpayers.

The Sun Sentinel determined that more than $680 million a year in welfare is awarded to Cuban immigrants who are presumed to be refugees escaping communism. Unlike other immigrants, Cubans do not have to prove persecution. But many now regularly return to their homeland, making the special treatment harder to defend.

Cuban radio shows in Miami have been deluged with callers dismayed by people flitting between the two nations and siphoning public assistance meant to help needy people in the U.S.

"It's outrageous, and people are really upset," said Ninoska Pérez Castellón, the popular Spanish-language host on Radio Mambi. "When I open the lines, people talk about this all the time."

On the air, she discussed one scam she learned about from a hospital worker: a Cuban woman, newly in the U.S., gave birth but listed the baby's father on the birth certificate as an elderly uncle -- in his 80s. Asked why, the woman and the baby's true father explained how the uncle likely would die soon and the child would be entitled to Social Security survivor's benefits until he was 18.

"That blew my mind," Pérez Castellón said.

Miami Rep. Carlos Curbelo, the son of Cuban exiles, vowed earlier this year to introduce legislation discouraging travel back to the island for Cubans who are not yet U.S. citizens and has been meeting with key lawmakers and the White House on a "bipartisan solution.''

Like the rest of South Florida's Cuban congressional delegation, Curbelo said he wants to tighten – but preserve -- the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, which awards legal residency to Cubans a year after they arrive, far faster than other immigrants.

"Nothing has changed there when it comes to political oppression, beatings, imprisonment, so we need to find a balance between providing that expedited path to freedom and ending unacceptable abuses of the law,'' Curbelo said.

Diaz-Balart and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, another Cuban-American with considerable influence on such issues, agree with Curbelo that they want to reform, not repeal, the special rules for Cubans.

"There should be no back and forth traffic to Cuba for those who choose to use the Cuban Adjustment Act to obtain U.S. residence because these individuals are abusing the system to jump in line over every other refugee," Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement to the Sun Sentinel.

Several in South Florida's congressional delegation blame the Obama Administration for exacerbating the problem by loosening travel restrictions between the two countries, and failing to enact proposals to curtail fraud.

Under the George Bush Administration, family visits to Cuba were limited to once every three years, for up to two weeks. But in 2009, President Obama lifted all U.S. restrictions on the frequency or duration of the trips.

"President Obama's policies have opened a floodgate for all types of abuses," Diaz-Balart said.

For more than a decade, auditors of the Social Security Administration have urged the agency to routinely match welfare recipients against international travel records kept by the Department of Homeland Security, but the two agencies haven't been able to agree on a data-sharing plan. Several lawmakers said they will find out why it's taken so long.

"There is no excuse for two federal agencies being unable to communicate with one another," said U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, a Democrat from west Boca Raton.

In response to the Sun Sentinel investigation, Social Security plans an audit to determine the scope of the problem by reviewing international travel records of random beneficiaries, including Cubans.

The Obama Administration did not respond to questions from the Sun Sentinel.

Deutch, who serves on two key Congressional committees with oversight on immigration policies, Judiciary and Foreign Affairs, said Congress should hold hearings to reexamine whether special immigration preferences for Cubans are still warranted.

"There are dramatic changes happening with regard to the U.S.-Cuba relationship in some areas while in others, like the Cuban Adjustment Act, we've seen no discussion at all,'' he said.

Rubio was the only current presidential candidate who would touch the hot-button topic. Cubans are a politically powerful group whose votes are heavily courted.

Even Donald Trump, the insurgent billionaire who has upended the Republican contest, declined to comment, despite his insistence that 11 million undocumented immigrants should be deported.

Gosar, the Arizona congressman, however, is prepared to take on the powerful Cuban bloc in Congress, saying their influence may be waning. Making sure the system is fair, he said, is the "American way."

momatz@tribpub.com or 954-356-4518 or skestin@tribpub.comor 954-356-4510

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nat...016-story.html

No welfare of any kind for "refugees". Just stop all this free asylum business with regards to Cuba. It wasn't necessary then, and it's most certainly not necessary now. Just Stop It. No more special treatment based on your nationality or country of origin.

And stop all refugees into the US. They all need to go home.

Florida is a s----le I would rather stay out of.

10/15

Investigation: Cuban Refugees Abusing, Funneling U.S. Welfare to Cuba