He senator United States Marco Rubio (R-FL) questioned the situation of Cubans who are welcomed as refugees in the United States and later They travel to Cuba, a country from which they supposedly They fled political persecution.
Their statements occurred on Wednesday, November 8, during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the request for the Biden Administration additional funds to quickly process migrants who enter the country illegally.
Addressing the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alexander Mayorkas, the senator raised the case of Cubans who acquire refugee status in the United States and a year later are on vacation in Cuba, a country from which they supposedly fled for political reasons.
“If you are fleeing persecution, how can it be that a year later you are spending your summers in Cuba? How can it be that less than a year later you are traveling, let's say, from six to eight times a year to Cuba? I have never heard of people fleeing persecution and returning to one place repeatedly. “There is a problem here, right?” Rubio asked Mayorkas.
Referring to the case of Cuban refugees, the Republican senator from Florida stated that “if you come from Cuba is assumed that you are fleeing political persecution", which is why the figure of "credible fear” during the interview that is done with them to Cuban asylum seekers.
“So you are automatically eligible to receive cash for refugees, you are eligible to receive food stamps, you are eligible for Medicaid. Others who immigrate to this country have to wait five years to receive them and do not receive refugee cash. But after a year, depending on whether they have parole, [Cubans] can apply for a green card and then they can travel back to Cuba as many times as they want,” said the senator.
Claiming to know this situation first-hand, Rubio explained to Mayorkas the “privileges” enjoyed by Cuban refugees and the practices they carry out protected by them, such as sending aid money to Cuba (food stamps), or the possibility of staying up to three months in the country from which they supposedly fled, among others.
“Once you are here, presupposes that you are here because you are a refugee fleeing persecution and you have a number of benefits at the very least. If a year later you are here as a refugee, but you return to Cuba six times“Shouldn't you at least lose your refugee status?” Rubio asked the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
The question, which is on the minds of a good part of the cuban exile, left Mayorkas without a response, who promised Rubio that he would study the matter and offer him a response based on the legal arguments surrounding the issue.
In mid-October, the Cuban-American senator asked expel foreigners who support the terrorist group from the United States Hamas. The Republican politician, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, demanded to cancel the visas of all foreigners who support the Islamist organization, whether they are tourists, teachers or students.
Days before, Rubio declared that he found it embarrassing the presence of Cuba as one of the member states of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations Organization (UN).
"The United States should not participate in the UN Human Rights Council. It is embarrassing that the criminal dictatorship of Cuba has been re-elected as a member," he said.
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