Lawmakers Demand Changes as Cuban Migration to US Surges

by Mark Browne, CNSnews:

President-elect Donald Trump and Congress are facing demands by lawmakers to end the special treatment given to Cuban migrants to the U.S., amid a surge of new arrivals on the border with Mexico following restoration of diplomatic relations with the island nation.

“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.

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