Cubans “are eligible for all welfare on the same basis as U.S. citizens, as soon as they hit the shore — all welfare,” said Don Barnett of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based nonpartisan research group.

Neither Congress nor the Obama administration is publicly discussing whether the aid is still warranted, even as the two countries reconcile.

The intent of the money was to help Cuban refugees flee communist oppression and settle here. But that privileged status now seems unjustifiable as Cubans trek back and forth to Havana to visit, said one of the original architects of the entitlement, former U.S. Sen. Richard Stone of Florida.

Stone, now 87 and living in Maryland, recently told the Sun Sentinel that he supported giving aid to any Cuban who had “the gumption to risk his life to get to America.” But he said welfare was not meant for Cubans to return to the island. “It proves there is not [persecution], if you can go back and forth.”

The travel raises questions about the extraordinary assistance Cubans receive, he said. “I definitely think it needs to be thoroughly investigated.”

Limitless

The U.S. government and charities provided the earliest exiles with clothes, minimal cash and handouts of oatmeal, cheese and canned ham at downtown Miami’s Freedom Tower. It was a humanitarian effort to help those who fled Fidel Castro while waiting for his government to fall. That never happened, and as more refugees reached Florida shores, a Cuban voting bloc grew into a powerhouse.

“There is no question the Cuban lobby in American politics has been pretty strong since the early 1960s,” said Carl Bon Tempo, a professor at the State University of New York at Albany and author of a book on refugees. “They’ve been able to, for a number of reasons, put pressure on local, state and national officials” to preserve and expand aid.

The justification was two-pronged: Florida should not have to shoulder the costs of educating, housing and providing health care to thousands of new immigrants each year. And the U.S., upholding tradition as a sanctuary for the oppressed, supported the refugees.

The aid was intended as a short-term boost for Cubans to resettle, but the cost to U.S. taxpayers has become limitless.

The Sun Sentinel found that Cubans are disproportionately represented among foreign-born recipients of SSI, assistance for disabled people and impoverished seniors. In 2013, one in 10 Cubans was collecting SSI, compared to one in 25 immigrants from all other nations.

Special treatment

Unlike other immigrants, Cubans are granted entry to the United States just by reaching land. The Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 enables them to become permanent legal residents a year after they arrive, far faster than any other nationality.

The 1980 Mariel Boatlift brought more than 125,000 Cubans to South Florida over six months when Fidel Castro opened Cuba’s Mariel harbor to those wishing to leave. The influx of Cubans and a smaller number of Haitians overwhelmed South Florida schools and welfare agencies. Congress responded by creating a new category of immigrants that made Cubans eligible for government assistance for decades to come. File photos

After opening America’s door to Cubans, Congress passed a series of acts that singled them out to receive benefits. One of the most significant occurred in 1980, when thousands of Cubans and a smaller number of Haitians inundated South Florida after Castro opened the Mariel harbor to those wishing to leave.

Florida’s Sen. Stone and Rep. Dante Fascell introduced a measure to reimburse state and local agencies overwhelmed by the cost of providing emergency assistance to masses of desperate people.

Their amendment to the 1980 Refugee Education Assistance Act also included a key change: Cubans and Haitians were deemed a special category of “entrants.” They would be entitled to the same federal assistance as immigrants granted refuge and asylum as victims of political persecution.

Haitians had difficulty tapping that assistance because they, like most other immigrants, were routinely turned away at sea or deported if they made it to the U.S. without permission. Cubans, on the other hand, had an open door as presumed refugees from communism.

Rep. Robert McClory of Illinois was among the congressmen to raise concerns, cautioning that costs could mushroom. “It contains no lid or limitation on the funds which will be disbursed,” he said at the time.

President Jimmy Carter, who was seeking reelection, signed the bill at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee. In an interview that day, Carter spoke of the state’s political importance and how Florida “helped put me over the top” to win the presidency.

Welfare reform

By the mid 1990s, members of Congress grew concerned that access to welfare had become a magnet drawing immigrants to the United States.

The historic welfare reform act of 1996 barred most new immigrants from benefits for five years after their arrival. But advocates for states with many immigrants, including Florida, later rallied successfully for exceptions. Cubans remained eligible for food stamps, Medicaid and SSI, though SSI would be cut off after seven years if they were not U.S. citizens.

When elderly and infirm immigrants worried about losing their benefits under the new time limits, Miami’s Cuban-American congressional representatives found a solution. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart pushed an exemption that allowed those with physical or mental impairments to become citizens without taking the English and civics test.

Cubans avoided another welfare reform measure: Immigrants from other nations must promise to support relatives they bring to the U.S., keeping them off public assistance. Cubans who bring family under a reunification program make a similar pledge — but their loved ones are immediately eligible for welfare.

“Everyone realizes it’s a joke,” said Miami immigration attorney Wilfredo Allen, a Cuban American. “We’re giving away money.”

Aid indefinite

The U.S. policy of treating Cubans as refugees in need of special treatment endures even as the rationale for it fades. Many Cubans now come to America for economic opportunity. They’re granted public support as victims of oppression but return frequently to Cuba, some staying for months while the U.S. government keeps paying, the Sun Sentinel found.

Public opinion has shifted, with Americans now supporting an end to the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba and increased travel between the two countries, according to a Gallup poll earlier this year. But neither Congress nor the president has openly advocated ending Cubans’ special access to government aid.

The topic is still taboo for politicians, said Philip J. Williams, director of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Florida. “If they ran on a platform of, ‘Let’s treat Cubans like everyone else and not give them this special category,’ they might lose some votes,” he said.

Bafalis said he never expected the aid to flow for the next 35 years and beyond. “It really is incredible that it was allowed to continue.”