Social Security benefits for more Cuban immigrants being sought

[struggle4progress]

Lawmakers demand Social Security benefits for Cubans who have overstayed their visas, not just those who arrived under the dry-foot immigration policy.

BY OSCAR CORRAL
[email protected]

Miami congressional representatives are prodding the Social Security Administration to change a policy that denies benefits to scores of elderly Cubans who settled in the United States after overstaying their visas.

U.S. Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, both Republicans, fired off letters to SSA Commissioner Jo Anne Barnhart demanding answers. <snip>

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22social+security%22

[oneighty]

1. Meanwhile with the Minutemen

At the Mexico/Arizona border.

This is hilarious. Really

180

[Gyre]

2. What's effed up

Is paying people who didn't contribute. Sorry, dems da breaks. Shouldn't get something for nothing except in rare circumstances.

Gyre

[Mika]

3. All Cuban migrants (except these) get S.S.I, medicare+aid, welfare, etc

The USA offers over 20,000 LEGAL immigration visas per year to Cubans (and Bush just announced that the number would increase despite the fact that not all 20,000 were applied for in the last few years). This number is more than any other single country in the world. Its the US interests section in Cuba that does the criminal background check on the applicants.

The US's 'wet foot/ dry foot' policy (that applies to Cubans only) permits Cuban criminals and felons who arrive on US shores by illegal means to remain in the US despite having failed to qualify for a legal US immigration application.

Cubans who leave for the US without a US immigration visa are returned to Cuba (if caught at sea - mainly in smuggler's go-fast boats @ $5,000 per head) by a US/Cuban repatriation agreement. But IF they make it to US soil, no matter who they are or what their criminal backround might be, they get to stay in the US and enjoy perks offered ONLY TO CUBAN IMMIGRANTS (via the US's Cuban Adjustment Act and a variety of other 'Cubans only' perks). Perks like instant work visa, instant green card, instant access to sec 8 taxpayer assisted housing, instant social security, instant welfare, free health care, and more.

These perks are not offered to any other immigrant group, but yet, without the perks offered to Cubans, immigrants still pour into the US from all over the Caribbean and the Latin Americas - many taking greater risks than Cubans to get here.


Get it? There is no such thing as a Cuban illegal immigrant. Plus, they get perks that no other group is offered.

It seems that the only exclusion to the rules on the benefits available are Cuban immigrants like the ones described in the article.