Texas Congressman wants to get rid of Cuban residency laws
Texas Congressman wants to get rid of Cuban residency laws
BY MEGHAN LOPEZ THURSDAY, MAY 12TH 2016
EL PASO, Texas — With a new surge of Cuban immigrants making their way to the U.S., a Texas congressman is hoping to get rid of the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966.
Rep. Henry Cuellar has co-authored the Correcting Unfair Benefits for Aliens Act of 2016, otherwise known as the CUBA Act.
The bill would repeal the 1966 law and the wet foot/dry foot policy, which allows Cubans who reach U.S. soil to be granted residency after one year.
The bill states, "It is the sense of Congress that Cuban nationals should be treated under the same immigration rules as nationals of other countries with which the United States has diplomatic relations and should not receive preferential treatment."
Cuellar represents Laredo, an area that has been a focal point of the surge of Cuban migrants. According to the Pew Research Center, in fiscal 2015, two-thirds of all Cubans came through that sector, which was an 82 percent increase from the previous year.
With relations normalizing between the U.S. and Cuba, Cuellar says it's time for immigration allowances to do the same.
"What this bill does is get rid of the unfairness that we have in the immigration system dealing with Cubans this amnesty, and I'm calling it amnesty, or this preferential treatment because no other group gets this special treatment that the Cubans get," Cuellar said.
He said he believes the surge stems back to the normalizing relations between the two nations and the fear that some Cubans have that this law will go away. And, until the U.S. does away with the law, Cubans will continue to come by land and by sea.
Instead, Cuellar wants to evaluate Cuban migrants on a case-by-case basis for asylum and citizenship.
"The bottom line is if are going to treat somebody that way then I think they should be treated as an individual case and then they can show credible fear or they can show asylum or the case for refugee status. Then, on a case-by-case basis like we treat all immigrants, they should be taken in," he said.
However, Cuellar says this is just one facet of a bigger immigration issue. He said the entire immigration system needs to be reformed in order to be more comprehensive.
But, the bill does not address what to do with the Cubans who come to the U.S. once it is enacted. According to immigration attorney Cynthia Lopez, the law was created because the U.S. could not deport people to Cuba. So, for a time, these migrants were being held indefinitely. Even with renewed diplomatic ties, to this day, the U.S. cannot deport Cuban immigrants.
Cuellar didn't have a specific answer as to what should happen with the migrants who choose to make the trek even after the bill goes into law. But he pointed to the cause-and-effect relationship, arguing that fewer Cubans will come if the CUBA Act is signed into law.
In the end, Cuellar admitted that the bill likely will not pass this session since it is an election year. Regardless, he plans to bring it up in the House Appropriations Committee in order to get the conversation started.
http://kfoxtv.com/news/local/texas-c...residency-laws
