Overstaying their visitation visas is a major reason the US is now rejecting almost all visitation applications from Cubans.
Some examples of the problems this sets up ...
Cuban immigrants find themselves stuck after being denied benefits
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/11189135.htmBY OSCAR CORRAL
ocorral@herald.com
A little-noticed change in federal benefit rules has kept
scores of older Cuban immigrants from collecting disability
checks that are considered one of America's last-ditch
social safety nets, according to a pair of public service
lawyers.
People like Barbara Diaz, who arrived from Cuba five years
ago, are left with little or no income, say the lawyers who
are trying to address the situation.
''I don't regret coming to this country because it's the
best in the world,'' said Diaz, 71. ``But I thought I would
have this help, and I don't.''
Diaz was counting on receiving Supplemental Security
Income, or SSI -- monthly benefits of up to $570 that are
paid to disabled or older people whose incomes are low
enough to qualify for the checks.
But she and others have been denied the help because of an
obscure change in policy made in 2001 by the Social
Security Administration, which oversees SSI.
The agency ruled that it would provide SSI benefits to
Cuban immigrants only if they arrived via the dry-foot
policy, which basically means they fled successfully to the
United States without a visa and often by rafts or go-fast
boats.
Cubans who, like Diaz, arrived on tourist visas but
then overstayed them were denied.OK'D, THEN REJECTED
Since then, dozens of people who came on visas have had
their benefits initially approved but then rejected by the
Social Security agency.
Lawyers Jose Fons and Lizel Gonzalez of Legal Services of
Greater Miami said Cuban clients who have been denied
benefits have flooded their offices the past two years.
They now have almost 200 clients in the same predicament.
''Immigration law is supposed to serve this community, but
the government is leaving them out to dry,'' Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said the Cuban government seems to be sending its
retired and disabled citizens to the United States as
tourists.
For example, Nuris Morales, 68, said when she left Cuba in
2000, officials there said ``it was the year of the elderly
and they were giving visas to the elderly in the United
States.''
Lawyers for such immigrants believe their clients are
entitled to the monthly SSI benefits because they were
given residency under the Cuban Refugee Adjustment Act.
COUNTY PAYS
But while the Cubans await court rulings on their benefits,
Miami-Dade County has partially picked up the tab for some
of them, giving them $220 a month in welfare funds for rent
assistance.
In 2000, the county distributed just $1.3 million in this
last-resort aid. Last year, the number was $2.07 million,
an increase of nearly 60 percent. Payments over the past
five years total $8.4 million.
As of Dec. 31, Miami-Dade had registered 1,153 active
clients receiving the monthly $220, an amount that has not
been raised in 20 years and which Gonzalez and Fons say is
ridiculously meager.
People who receive the aid must sign an agreement to repay
the money once they begin receiving SSI benefits. But
Gonzalez said the county never gets repaid if people lose
their court cases.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees
immigration, said it does not distinguish in status between
Cuban immigrants who got residency through the ''wet
foot/dry foot'' policy or those who overstayed tourist
visas. The immigrant lawyers hope to persuade the Social
Security Administration to adopt the same view.
''We are working to resolve the issue of their immigration
status, and we have to work with the Department of Homeland
Security to resolve that,'' said Social Security
spokeswoman Patti Patterson.
Bill Strassberger, a spokesman for the U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Service, said it's the Department of Homeland
Security's job to clarify whether Cubans who overstay
tourist visas should be considered Cuban/Haitian entrants.Cuban-American legislators have been cautious on the issue.
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen did not return phone calls
seeking comment. And U.S. Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart would
only say he is looking into it.
NEEDS `CLEAR IDEA'
''I will do whatever I can, but I need to get a clear
idea,'' Díaz-Balart said. ``We're taking that very
seriously.''
Caught in the legal wrangle are the older Cubans who say
they need the $570 to live. They generally have no income
other than the county's infusion and whatever else they
earn doing odd jobs.
Diaz, who prays every morning to San Lazaro and Santa
Barbara, said she fell while leaving a job cleaning houses
two years ago and tore hip ligaments. She said she leaves
her apartment only to walk to a nearby Sedano's for
groceries.
Diaz is lucky in some respects. She lives in a studio
apartment behind her son and his wife in Hialeah. But like
many of the Cubans interviewed, she said she suffers bouts
of deep depression because she never wanted to be a burden
to her son, and she doesn't have any friends in her adopted
country.
''I pray to San Lazaro to take care of me,'' she said, her
hands clutched before the altar of saints she smuggled out
of Cuba. ``They give me at least some comfort.''
COUPLE STRUGGLES
Estefania Perdigon, 67, came from Cuba in 2000 and
overstayed her tourist visa. She became a resident under
the Cuban Adjustment Act, applied for SSI benefits and was
rejected.A couple of years ago, she married Salvador Sarzo, 82, a
Cuban who is a naturalized citizen and receives benefits.
Sarzo is disabled now, and she cares for him.
On a recent morning, after getting Sarzo out of bed,
Perdigon talked about the challenges of living on the $569
a month her husband collects. They must cover every monthly
bill with that, including $119 in subsidized rent.
She said if it weren't for the $165 in food stamps they
both get monthly, they would be destitute. Their furniture
is donated, and they don't own a car.
''We're barely getting by,'' she said. ``I need those
benefits.''
Fons offered the case of another client, Maria Gonzalez,
74. But when Gonzalez was sought out for an interview
recently at her downtrodden Little Havana apartment, it was
discovered she had been evicted, her possessions tossed
into the street.
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