US public opinion has set its sights on the Cuban Adjustment Act (CAA), due to the unique benefits that offers to Cuban citizens, in contrast to the treatment granted to other immigrants.
US public opinion has set its sights on the Cuban Adjustment Act (CAA), due to the unique benefits that offers to Cuban citizens, in contrast to the treatment granted to other immigrants.
In 1966, the US Congress approved the CAA under the pretext of granting asylum to Cuban immigrants, but authorities in Havana have repeatedly charged that it is a destabilizing element, an incentive to illegal emigration from the island and a form of brain drain.
In 2015, US media asked the Congress to reconsider the force of the CAA and, in that regard, an editorial published by Bloomberg Business on December 9 pointed out that Cubans have benefited from exceptional norms for more than half a century.
The editorial added that the CAA is an entry door to people who are not persecuted politically.
The publication called on President Barack Obama to deport the Cubans who want to benefit from that law and cannot prove that they are true political refugees.
That law is complemented by the dry feet-wet feet policy, which encouraged illegal emigration from Cuba, and was strengthened by the Cuban Medical Professionals' Program (CMPP), which grants visas to Cuban doctors and medical staff working in international missions.
For its part, The New York Times made an analysis of the issue in at least two editorials this year, describing the CAA as a relic from the Cold War that must be annulled, because it grants unique privileges to Cuban immigrants.
According to the New York-based newspaper, that law is obsolete, like the dry feet-wet feet policy, established in 1995 by the William Clinton administration (1992-2001) and by virtue of which those who arrive in the United States are accepted, while those intercepted at open sea are repatriated to Cuba.
Los Angeles Times pointed out in an editorial in February that the US migration policy on Cuba, forged during the Cold War, is obsolete and the US Congress must review the CAA, a request echoed by the Florida-based Sun Sentinel.
During a recent visit to Havana, Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis and his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, reviewed the situation of about 4,000 Cuban migrants in that Central American country.
In that regard, the Cuban president repeated that the dry feet-wet feet policy, the CMPP and the CAA encourage illegal emigration and endanger the integrity of migrants.
The Florida representatives in Congress were, for many years, the most tenacious advocates of the CAA, but recently, some of them have called to reform the content of the law.
In that regard, Florida Republican Representative Carlos Curbelo, of Cuban origin, is sponsoring a draft bill to eliminate the concession of automatic federal aid to Cuban immigrants.
Curbelo's initiative aims to amend the federal law that treats all Cuban immigrants as political refugees, thus entitling them to receive food stamps, medical assistance and other aids, El Nuevo Herald reported on Wednesday.
Cubans coming to the United States will have the same opportunities as the immigrants from other nations, like Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Central America (any country) to work and make a living, Curbelo said, according to el Nuevo Herald.
On December 17, 2014, Cuban President Raul Castro and his US peer, Barack Obama, announced their decision to reestablish diplomatic relations and start a process towards the normalization of bilateral ties.
Nearly seven months later, on July 20, 2015, the two countries' interest sections in Washington and Havana were upgraded to embassies and diplomatic relations were resumed.
Source: PL