Proposed Law Would End Preferential Treatment for Cuban Refugees 

 Two South Texas Members of Congress, a Republican and a Democrat, have introduced a bill to repeal the controversial 'wet foot dry foot' policy which has allows Cuban immigrants to receive preferential treatment, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.

  Called the 'Correcting Unfair Benefits for Aliens' Act, the bill sponsored by U.S. Reps Blake Farenthold (R-Corpus Christi) and Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo) would repeal the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, which grants immediate legal status in the United States, as well as immediate access to U.S. welfare benefits, to any Cuban national who makes it to the U.S. mainland.

  "When they get to the United States they are not deported like other folks," Cuellar told News Radio 1200 WOAI.  "They also get immediate benefits the minute they walk in."

  Cuellar has long complained that the current law is unfair because it treats migrants from Cuba differently than, for example, the migrants who have been streaming into the U.S. from Central America.  The Cuban refugees are 'assumed' by the law to be fleeing from an oppressive dictatorship, an assumption which is not granted to refugees from, say, El Salvador.

  "We shouldn't lose sight of the thousands of people from regions like Central America, who are fleeing serious threats from drug violence and face a disadvantage when compared with Cubans," Cuellar said.  "The need remains for comprehensive immigration reform, but in the meantime, we shouldn't be handing out special status and benefits for a select group."

  A fear that this law would be introduced has prompted a huge spike in Cuban refugees streaming into the U.S.  About two thirds of them have entered the country in Cuellar's home district of Laredo.

  Farenthold says times have changed, and the law has to change with it.

  "With President Obama restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba, the immigration preferential treatment given to Cubans who enter the United States no longer makes sense," Farenthold said.

http://woai.iheart.com/articles/local-news-119078/proposed-law-would-end-preferential-treatment-14527225/#ixzz43qQ8d2T5