Miami Republican files legislation in Congress to end automatic benefits for Cuban immigrants

Miami Republican files legislation in Congress to end automatic benefits
for Cuban immigrants

The U.S. government treats all Cubans as refugees
They're automatically entitled to benefits like Medicaid and food stamps
U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo wants to stop that
BY PATRICIA MAZZEI
pmazzei@miamiherald.com

Citing flagrant abuse of government funds, a Miami congressman published
legislation Tuesday to stop automatically granting Cubans in the U.S.
welfare benefits that take most immigrants of other nationalities years
to obtain.

Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo, himself a Cuban American, filed a bill
to amend existing federal law that treats all Cuban arrivals as refugees
or political asylees — meaning they are entitled to food stamps,
Medicaid, disability insurance and other assistance.

Under his proposal, which Curbelo cast as a matter of fairness, Cubans
would be treated like immigrants from most other countries, who are
required to file a refugee or asylum claim — and wait years for it to be
approved — before qualifying for special benefits. Only Haitian
immigrants, already treated like Cubans under the Refugee Education
Assistance Act of 1980, would continue to be exempted upon legal arrival
in the U.S.

"Cubans coming to the United States will have the same opportunity as
immigrants from other nations like Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Central
America — from any country — to work and earn an honest living while
contributing to our great nation," Curbelo said in a web video released
Tuesday to explain his proposal. "Like asylum seekers from all over the
world, those Cubans seeking public assistance benefits will have to
demonstrate that they left Cuba fleeing political persecution and are
unable to return under the current totalitarian regime."

His proposal would affect only Cubans who immigrate to the U.S. after
his law is passed. The bill would also require the Obama administration
to verify the residency of Cubans receiving federal benefits, to weed
out those getting the assistance while living in Cuba.

Curbelo's three-page legislation doesn't touch the Cuban Adjustment Act,
the 1966 law that gives Cubans the privilege of applying for permanent
residency after 366 days in the U.S. They would still qualify for all
eligible federal benefits as residents and, later, citizens.

But Curbelo acknowledged his legislation, HR 4247, dubbed the "Cuban
Immigrant Work Opportunity Act of 2015," is a "first step" toward
rewriting U.S.-Cuba immigration policy, which would eventually involve
tackling the CAA. The freshman congressman has separately been working
for months on legislation to crack down on so-called economic refugees
from Cuba who claim U.S. residency, established for victims of political
persecution, only to travel to the island before becoming U.S. citizens.

"There are numerous abuses in relation to our U.S.-Cuba immigration
policy," Curbelo said in an interview with the Miami Herald. "I consider
this an important first step in starting to end those abuses, but there
are others. Certainly we're all familiar with the arguments that people
who are adjusting under the Cuban Adjustment Act — the spirit of the law
is that they're all refugees and asylees, yet they travel back and forth
to Cuba."

THERE ARE NUMEROUS ABUSES IN RELATION TO OUR U.S.-CUBA IMMIGRATION POLICY.
U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Miami

Curbelo disagrees with President Barack Obama's renewed diplomatic
relations with Cuba, saying the move pushed thousands of Cubans to leave
the island in the past year, many of them getting stuck in Central
America as they tried to trek to the U.S.-Mexico border.

"Our Cuba immigration policy is flawed, and the Administration has made
matters worse by recognizing the Cuban dictatorship as a legitimate
government," he said in a statement.

South Florida's powerful Cuban-American community, whose members have
benefited directly or indirectly from the law, has long protected the
CAA. But Miami's Cuban Americans began questioning the policy in recent
years as Cuban immigration has shifted and become more similar to
immigration from other countries. Curbelo pledged to tighten the law in
his 2014 campaign; political calls to deal with the CAA only increased
after Obama's policy change a year ago, and after the Sun Sentinel
documented widespread CAA abuses.

In October, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, told Herald news partner
WFOR-CBS 4 that, if the law was done away with, "it wouldn't break my
heart." Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, told the Sun Sentinel in
February that the CAA is "ripe for reform." And Sen. Marco Rubio, who is
running for president, told the Herald in a November statement that
Congress should "eliminate the loopholes being exploited by those who
abuse U.S. law."

None wants to repeal the law outright, as proposed in October by Rep.
Paul Gosar of Arizona. That legislation hasn't gotten traction yet in
the House Judiciary Committee.

Speaker Paul Ryan has vowed not to take up immigration legislation,
which has harshly divided House Republicans. Curbelo is pitching his
legislation as a budgetary bill headed to the House Ways and Means
Committee and intended to save the government money. The Congressional
Budget Office has yet to issue a savings estimate.

Source: Miami Republican files legislation in Congress to end automatic
benefits for Cuban immigrants | Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article49901615.html