“Every aspect of U.S. policy toward Cuba needs to be reexamined in the new administration,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told CNSNews.com through a spokesman this week. Rubio specifically called for an end to federal benefits to Cubans who come to the U.S., apply for benefits and then collect them after returning to Cuba. “If you’re coming from Cuba, receiving refugee benefits and returning to the island all the time, then you shouldn’t be eligible for refugee benefits from U.S. taxpayers,” he said. “We want to make sure refugee benefits are not creating a financial incentive to come to the U.S.”
Rubio has introduced a bill, “The Cuban Immigrant Work Opportunity Act of 2016‎,” which would end the “automatic eligibility for federal public assistance for Cuban nationals under the Refugee Resettlement Program, while maintaining it for those that have been persecuted that are in need of resettlement assistance.” He has stopped short, however, of calling for an end to the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, which confers special immigration status to Cuban refugees and their families who set foot on U.S. soil. The law gives Cubans who make it into the U.S., including their spouses and family members, the right to apply for legal permanent residence within one year – originally two years – of being in the country. The act was amended in 1995 to specify that Cubans detained at sea while trying to enter the U.S. would be sent back to Cuba.
U.S.-bound Cuban migrants arrive at Ciudad Hidalgo on the Guatemala-Mexico border
Reps. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) and Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) have introduced a bill to repeal the 1966 law, removing the special rights of Cuban migrants who make it onto U.S. soil to apply for residence. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the bill would also “address rampant abuse of taxpayer dollars” by ending “automatic eligibility for federal benefits for Cuban nationals under the Refugee Resettlement Program.” The bill calls upon the Social Security Administration to report on how many Cubans living in Cuba are collecting federal benefits such as Supplemental Security Income.
The number of Cuban migrants entering the U.S. “spiked dramatically” after President Obama renewed diplomatic relations at the end of 2014, according to federal immigration records acquired by the Pew research center under a freedom of information request. Some 46,635 Cuban migrants made it to U.S. soil in the first ten months of fiscal year 2016 – more than all of FY 2015, when Cuban arrivals increased 78 percent over 2014, the records showed. A majority of those 46,635 Cuban migrants (64 percent) arrived at the Texas border rather than risking a Caribbean crossing by boat.
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