An increasing number of Cubans are using their refugee status to commit welfare fraud in the United States and take the U.S. tax dollars they receive back to the communist island nation, the Sun-Sentinel reported.
The cost has grown to about $682 million per year in exploitation, according to the newspaper’s analysis of federal and Florida data on federal welfare benefits. But the newspaper believes that is a “conservative” estimate.
NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 18: People walk past an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) station, more commonly known as Food Stamps, in the GrowNYC Greenmarket in Union Square on September 18, 2013 in New York City. According to a Gallup poll released earlier this month, 20% of American adults struggled to buy enough food at some point in the last year. The rate of hungry people in America has gone relatively unchanged since 2008, suggesting the economic recovery since the 2008 recession may be disproportionately affecting the wealthy. More than 50 of GrowNYC's Greenmarket's now accept EBT; over $800,000 in sales were complete with EBT payment at the Greenmarket's in 2012. GrowNYC is also currently offering a program known as Health Bucks: for ever $5 spent using EBT at a Greenmarket, GrowNYC provides an additional $2, which can be spent specifically on fresh fruits and vegetables. Credit: Getty Images
Image source: Getty Images
Cubans immigrants coming to America are presumed refugees and thus have legal status. This affords them immediate access to government assistance that includes cash payments, Medicaid, food stamps and job training programs. Since 2003, approximately 329,000 Cuban immigrants came to Florida and were eligible for aid, the Sun-Sentinel reported.
Some Cuban immigrants collect their benefits and return to Cuba for months — or never return to the United States — while the checks keep coming. In some cases, the newspaper said, a friend or relative collects the benefit and sends it to the person in Cuba. Federal regulations prohibit welfare recipients from collecting U.S. welfare benefits in another country.
“A family member would come into our office and say another family member isn’t receiving his benefits,” Javier Correoso, aide to former Rep. David Rivera (R-Fla.), told the Sun-Sentinel. “We’d say, ‘Where is he?’ They’d say, ‘He’s in Cuba and isn’t coming back for six months.,’” adding, “They’re taking benefits from the American taxpayer to subsidize their life in another country.”
The investigative report comes as the United States has normalized relations with Cuba, opened an embassy and is seeking greater commerce.
The story mentioned one woman who used the benefits to buy a house in Cuba, a man who returned to Cuba to start a business and another man receiving food stamps who said he was living in Cuba for most of this year.
“They got Medicaid, they got everything, and they returned to Cuba,” Dr. Noel Fernandez, who came to the United States as a refugee two decades ago, told the Sun-Sentinel. “I see people that said they were refugees [from] Cuba and they return the next year.”