Easy money: U.S. welfare flows to Cuba

Yeah, nobody saw this coming (sarcasm). I think it is time to change the "Cuban Sanctuary" laws and quickly. Very long article, highlights below:

amestrib.com...

Sun Sentinel

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Cuban immigrants are cashing in on U.S. welfare and returning to the island, making a mockery of the decades-old premise that they are refugees fleeing persecution at home.

Some stay for months at a time — and the U.S. government keeps paying.

Cubans’ unique access to food stamps, disability money and other welfare is meant to help them build new lives in America. Yet these days, it’s helping some finance their lives on the communist island.

America’s open-ended generosity has grown into an entitlement that exceeds $680 million a year and is exploited with ease. No agency tracks the scope of the abuse, but a Sun Sentinel investigation found evidence suggesting it is widespread.

Fed-up Floridians are reporting their neighbors and relatives for accepting government aid while shuttling back and forth to the island, selling goods in Cuba, and leaving their benefit cards in the U.S. for others to use while they are away.

Some don’t come back at all. The U.S. has continued to deposit welfare checks for as long as two years after the recipients moved back to Cuba for good, federal officials confirmed.

Regulations prohibit welfare recipients from collecting or using U.S. benefits in another country. But on the streets of Hialeah, the first stop for many new arrivals, shopkeepers like Miguel Veloso hear about it all the time.

Veloso, a barber who has been in the U.S. three years, said recent immigrants on welfare talk of spending considerable time in Cuba — six months there, two months here.

State Rep. Manny Diaz Jr. of Hialeah hears it too, from constituents in his heavily Cuban-American district, who tell of flaunting their aid money on visits to the island.

The money, he said, “is definitely not to be used … to go have a great old time back in the country that was supposed to be oppressing you.”

The sense of entitlement is so ingrained Cubans routinely complained to their local congressman about the challenge of accessing U.S. aid — from Cuba.

One woman told Miami immigration attorney Grisel Ybarra that her grandmother and two great-aunts came to Florida, got approved for benefits, opened bank accounts and returned to Cuba. Month after month, the woman cashed their government checks — about $2,400 each time — sending half to the women in Cuba and keeping the rest.

You would think that somebody would have noticed the forwarding address was to Havana....lol
But I have to agree, who didn't see this coming?

America has been a place of easy money for many illegals and those claiming refugee status even when they weren't refugees. They make money here and return back home well off.

a reply to: infolurker

Why didn't you just post the actual sun sentinel article?

It still shows that it is getting abused and is the actual source of the article.
Filled with alot of 'some one told me this' though.

a reply to: infolurker

Working an honest job really is for suckers. Nevermind college. Teach your kids how to leech off the system and they'll teach their kids and so on. A life of leisure while criminally and generationally mooching...to live any other way is for chumps. God Bless America!

a reply to: infolurker

Moral of the story: If something can be scammed it will be.

In the case of government programs, the taxpayer will be responsible for financing investigations into those who have cheated the system.

So we're paying for welfare, and also paying for the resources to investigate fraud in welfare.

Double fail for liberty.

originally posted by: infolurker
Yeah, nobody saw this coming (sarcasm). I think it is time to change the "Cuban Sanctuary" laws and quickly. Very long article, highlights below:

amestrib.com...

Sun Sentinel

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Cuban immigrants are cashing in on U.S. welfare and returning to the island, making a mockery of the decades-old premise that they are refugees fleeing persecution at home.

Some stay for months at a time — and the U.S. government keeps paying.

Cubans’ unique access to food stamps, disability money and other welfare is meant to help them build new lives in America. Yet these days, it’s helping some finance their lives on the communist island.

America’s open-ended generosity has grown into an entitlement that exceeds $680 million a year and is exploited with ease. No agency tracks the scope of the abuse, but a Sun Sentinel investigation found evidence suggesting it is widespread.

Fed-up Floridians are reporting their neighbors and relatives for accepting government aid while shuttling back and forth to the island, selling goods in Cuba, and leaving their benefit cards in the U.S. for others to use while they are away.

Some don’t come back at all. The U.S. has continued to deposit welfare checks for as long as two years after the recipients moved back to Cuba for good, federal officials confirmed.

Regulations prohibit welfare recipients from collecting or using U.S. benefits in another country. But on the streets of Hialeah, the first stop for many new arrivals, shopkeepers like Miguel Veloso hear about it all the time.

Veloso, a barber who has been in the U.S. three years, said recent immigrants on welfare talk of spending considerable time in Cuba — six months there, two months here.

State Rep. Manny Diaz Jr. of Hialeah hears it too, from constituents in his heavily Cuban-American district, who tell of flaunting their aid money on visits to the island.

The money, he said, “is definitely not to be used … to go have a great old time back in the country that was supposed to be oppressing you.”

The sense of entitlement is so ingrained Cubans routinely complained to their local congressman about the challenge of accessing U.S. aid — from Cuba.

One woman told Miami immigration attorney Grisel Ybarra that her grandmother and two great-aunts came to Florida, got approved for benefits, opened bank accounts and returned to Cuba. Month after month, the woman cashed their government checks — about $2,400 each time — sending half to the women in Cuba and keeping the rest.

Are you referring to corporate welfare for welfare for individuals?

What bothers me the most is the people I know who really need help can't get help.

Is Cuba's Obama's new golf destination?