Senate Amendment Seeks to Plug Holes in Cuba Immigration Policy

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. has introduced an amendment aimed at curtailing the widespread abuse of welfare benefits by Cuban migrants. The measure, introduced as an amendment to a bill funding the Federal Aviation Administration, is aimed at reforming the core of the current Cuba immigration policy: the outdated notion that all Cuban migrants are political refugees.

Implemented in 1966, the Cuban Adjustment Act(CAA) was passed to provide Cubans fleeing Fidel Castro’s communist revolution a safe haven in the U.S. by granting them expedited residency status. The policy, aimed to benefit individuals fleeing a communist state as opposed to favoring a nationality over others, has always stood in contrast to the brutal and repressive nature of the Castro regime; the Western Hemisphere’s longest running military dictatorship.

At the time of its enactment, it was safe to assume that all Cubans arriving in U.S. shores were refugees. Yet, time has shown that many have abused and exploited the generosity of the law. While the CAA has protected countless of Cuban’s fleeing state sponsored repression, there is a growing trend of Cuban migrants taking advantage of its lax standards.

Due to the weak travel restrictions, a concerning amount of Cubans that reach American shores become dual residents of the U.S. and Cuba, traveling back and forth and using their generous welfare benefits on the island. Such benefits have been proven to be dramatically exploited and have led to a growth of transnational criminal networks.

On the House side, Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., has introduced The Cuban Immigrant Work Opportunity Act aimed at addressing these same excesses.

Both measures account for the understanding that even though fully eradicating the CAA would be premature, reform to the CAA are long past due. Both would ensure that only true refugees and asylees can take advantage of the Refugee Resettlement Program by having them provide evidence that they were personally persecuted in their homelands. In addition, they exhorts the Administration to enforce its own regulations and ensure that benefits are not collected by ineligible individuals living abroad.