8000 "stranded" Cubans coming to Miami! Miami schools request emergency $$ for influx. More coming.

[Mika]

Guess who's paying for the final (to Miami) leg of their trip? Yep.

First of 8,000 stranded Cuban migrants cross into US

{snip}

Cubans paid for their own trips, including the flights from Costa Rica to El Salvador. Many of them cashed in all their belongings and traveled with their life savings to reach the U.S.

Central American governments will evaluate the pilot program in the next few days for the rest of the migrants, said Kathya Rodriguez, Costa Rica's migration director. She estimates they will need 28 more flights to move all the stranded Cubans out of shelters.

Article --> here.

They'll be made fully legal within 24 hours. Instant work permit. Instant qualification for Social Security and SNAP cards, plus, bumped to the top of the list for Section 8 housing (with an income exemption up to $40k for Cubans only). Plus, all of the benefits granted to Cubans only via "Wet Foot / Dry Foot", The Cuban Adjustment Act, and a plethora of low-cost and free benefits from Florida and Miami-Dade and the City of Miami... for Cuban "exiles" only.

Sweet deal. US socialism - for Cubans only - is better than Cuba's socialism.

[onecaliberal]

1. Sorry Florida, no socialism for you. It's bootstraps time.

[Bacchus4.0]

2. Cuba should pay. they need to take care of their own citizens nt

[Mika]

4. Why. The US offers Cubans better socialism... at our invitation.

Better than that. Why not just treat Cubans like everyone else? What a concept.

[Bacchus4.0]

7. Cuba should up its game so people don't want to leave at all

Ecuador and Costa Rica just stopped issuing visas to Cuban citizens according to the article in the OP. They don't ask for visas from Peruvians, Colombians, or Americans. Why don't they treat Cubans like everyone else? what a concept.

[yeoman6987]

3. They should be accepted. Glad they are coming

They want a better life for their families. This is wonderful news. America is truly accepting. I love it. Soon we'll have refugees. We are a melting pot don't forget.

[Mika]

5. I have no problem with normal immigration. This is, in no way, normal immigration.

Now Miami -one of the income poorest cities in the US, with the highest rent to wage ratios - will be trying to absorb over 24,000 Cubans who will be prioritized on the Section 8 housing list and will be sending these kids to already seriously overcrowded schools.

Not sure how this is fair to the natives let alone other immigrants who get no such special treatment.

[yeoman6987]

6. Maybe but what would you rather do with them?

[Mika]

13. I think that Cubans should be treated like all other immigration applicants.

They got out of Cuba. Good for them. Now, from their current location, they should apply for a US immigration visa like everyone else.
They supposedly "fled" Cuba using the premise of unequal treatment by the gov't. Now is the time for them to be treated equally like everyone else. That's what they wanted when the "fled" Cuba. No?

[yeoman6987]

14. That's fair 100 percent

I thought you may have wanted them to go back to Cuba.

[Mika]

15. I support full normalization between US and Cuba. No special treatment for Cubans over all others.

The ONLY reason they are "stranded" is because they are heading to the US, and some central American govt's don't want to be a gateway to illegal migrations to the US, as per the recent talks between the US and said nations regarding the illegal immigration by citizens of their nations.

The US offers over 20,000 per year. Not all are applied for. I just wonder why they didn't apply for a legal immigration visa while in Cuba. Don't you?

[Judi Lynn]

8. How could ANYONE be so dim-witted to ignore what has been a scandal for decades,

among everyone who knows that if economic immigrants from Cuban and from Haiti both appear on the beach in Florida, the immigration service will accept Cuban immigrants, consider them here legally, NEVER chase them down, but instead offer them free social security, medical treatment, instant food stamps, as Mika said already, Section 8 US-taxpayer financed HOUSING, financial assistance for education, low cost loans, etc., etc., etc., etc.

The Haitians, or any others, will be thrown in jail, and deported.

This has been a bitter, hideous thorn in the side of immigrants, or REAL refugees, fleeing mortal threats in their own countries, for ages. Anyone who can't see the ferocious injustice is blinded by his own ideology, or the wish to obfuscate, in hope of keeping others in the dark.

On edit:

It has been commonly known for years and years that the Cuban Adjustment Act was arranged to LURE Cubans from the young working age to the US, offering them opportunities they had back in Cuba, in order to create a vacuum of healthy workers there. It's a POLITICAL THANG. Who wouldn't be able to grasp that, anyway?

To pretend they are poor, beaten down "refugees" is the most colossal attempt at deception possible. Everyone knows that, including the people going through the ham-handed pretense.

[Bacchus4.0]

9. Why didn't Cuba offer to fly them back when they were stuck in Costa Rica?

I mean they're Cubans aren't they?


Why didn't Nicaragua, an ally of Cuba, allow them to come in and then arrest them and transport them back to Cuba?

[Judi Lynn]

10. That was THEIR choice, Spanky. Daddy doesn't come over and drive them back home. n/t

[Bacchus4.0]

11. Then why are you complaining if they come to the US?

If you prefer them back in Cuba, then Cuba should take them back. If the US law is changed the US would deport them back to Cuba anyway so why not just do it now? at Cuba's expense of course.

[Mika]

12. If they are fleeing Cuba, then they should be grateful to stay anywhere but Cuba. But, no, ....

... they're not fleeing Cuba. They are (as they intended all along) coming to Miami - on our dime too - for perks just for them.
Sweet deal for them. Not so much for the besieged schoool system and section 8 housing needs.

[Bacchus4.0]

16. They are still going to come, law or no law. Immigration laws haven't stopped people

from other nations from going to Florida or anywhere else.

[Mika]

17. US immigration laws re; Cubans are designed to attract them, not stop them.

But you know that.

[Bacchus4.0]

18. They are still going to come. Look at any of Cuba's neighbors. nt

[Mika]

19. They don't have any adjustment act to assist. They need visas. Cubans don't.

Haitians, Jamaicans, etc. all are deported upon entry. Cubans who enter the us ILLEGALLY are welcomed and given instant status and perks. Comparing Cuban illegal immigration to the USA to other migrations, legal or not, to the US isn't a fair comparison.
There really is no comparable immigration to the migration of Cubans to the USA. No other group are offered the pathway nor the perks that Cuban are offered and receive.

[Bacchus4.0]

20. They are still going to come. Law or no law. They don't want to stay in Cuba

Who would blame them?

[Mika]

21. No doubt. Let them use legal visas. No more special treatment.

Many claim to be treated unequally in Cuba. Going thru the processes that everyone else has to would be the right way to go. No?

[Bacchus4.0]

22. Absolutely. They shouldn't even have "special treatment" with getting 20,000 visas

Thats completely arbitrary and I understand that certain professionals can't get one. Thats on Cuba though.

Ideally, there would be no illegal immigration. They are still going to come though, including Cubans.