Did you know that Cubans who set foot on American soil and ask for asylum are immediately given legal immigrant status?  Even those smuggled in or who cross the Mexican border. Normalized relations with Cuba now being established by President Obama could mean Cuban immigrants would become subject to the same treatment as Mexicans.  Is it any wonder why a Cuban-American politician like Marco Rubio is lambasting the President? 

Here are excerpts from a Reuters article explaining the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act (CAA).  Note the article was written before the President took action so it did not come as a surprise to Rubio and Cuban status quo supporters:

Under the CAA, Cubans receive unique and highly favorable treatment, including granting of permanent residency a year after arrival, as well as being eligible for government benefits, such as Medicaid, supplemental social security income, child care, and disability.  (My note: The anti-illegal immigrant factions whip up hatred by saying undocumented immigrants receive these benefits but they do not.)

No other foreign nationals enjoy these benefits except for the few who are granted political asylum.

"I'm not sure we're going to be able to avoid, as part of any comprehensive approach to immigration, a conversation about the Cuban Adjustment Act," Florida's Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a son of Cuban immigrants, told reporters last month.

Rubio, one of eight senators pushing for bipartisan immigration reform, said the CAA was intended to protect refugees fleeing an oppressive regime but an increasing number of Cuban exiles were traveling to and from Cuba on family vacations and business trips, undermining the justification for the act.

"It's becoming increasingly difficult to justify it to my colleagues," said Rubio. (My note:  Obviously Rubio does not think repealing the CCA should be part of immigration reform.)

The reform could also mark the end of the controversial 'wet foot, dry foot' policy, coined after the 1994 Cuban rafter crisis, that allows entry to undocumented Cubans who reach U.S. soil ('dry foot') either by home-made rafts or smuggler 'go-fast' boats, as well as thousands who show up each year at the Mexico border. Others intercepted at sea ('wet foot') are repatriated.

According to an estimate by the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, the cost of public benefits provided to Cuban immigrants was $322 million in 2008. (My note: Imagine what it is now.)

"We cannot keep giving all the benefits to people coming from Cuba who have not paid a penny into the system, especially at a time when Congress is talking about taking benefits from people who have been paying into the system for years," added Mannerud, who is of Cuban descent.

To read the full article go to:  http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/08/us-usa-immigration-cuba-idUSBRE9170F920130208