PLUNDERING AMERICA: THE CUBAN CRIMINAL PIPELINE (Sun-Sentinel expose of Cuban migration)

[Mika]

I am posting this here because, clearly, US policy must change regarding Cuban migration ...

PLUNDERING AMERICA: THE CUBAN CRIMINAL PIPELINE

{snips}

A yearlong Sun Sentinel investigation found money stolen in the United States streaming back to Cuba, and a revolving door that allows thieves to come here, make a quick buck and return.

Cuba has become a bedroom community for criminals who exploit America’s good will.

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Livan Moya Tagle, charged in a million-dollar Texas credit-card fraud ring, told the Sun Sentinel that he stole to feed his family, and that Cubans go to the U.S. for economic opportunity. “No one leaves {Cuba} because of politics,” he said.

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American authorities naively think “Cubans who leave Cuba hate the Cuban government,” he wrote. “I went to the U.S. to steal, to damage the U.S. Government.”

Much much more. Full story here --> http://interactive.sun-sentinel.com/plundering-america/

[carla]

1. Reads like a screed.

So about a dozen criminals that take advantage of US laws represent the vast majority of hard working, decent, honest Cubans who have gone to the USA?
This is basically a form of racism, Mika. I would have thought you would be more careful about such yellow journalism.

You sound like Rupert Murdoch...

[Mika]

2. Its not my writing. It a Sun-Sentinal article.

Not sure how you surmise that I sound like Murdoch based on a Sun-Sentinal article that I didn't write.

Also, I should point out that Cubans are not a race.... Cubans come in all colors, creeds, races, and religions. Get a clue.

[Judi Lynn]

6. If the U.S. Government had not banned US citizens' travel to Cuba,

the poster would have figured that out for her/himself, in case she/he finds it easy to not see the people of many colors who live in Cuba in ordinary photographs.

How anyone could read this into your article from the Sun-Sentinel is perplexing.

Thank you for your information. Far more U.S. citizens should see it, and far, FAR more should have some grasp of what the Cuban Adjustment Act means, the unbelievable privileges it extends to Cubans for purely political reasons, and the hideous insult it represents to immigrants trying to escape DEADLY futures in Central America, and other Caribbean nations, like Haiti.

To not know about the Cuban Adjustment Act is truly sad.

[Mika]

3. Inside the Sun Sentinel’s investigation on Cuban criminals

Inside the Sun Sentinel’s investigation on Cuban criminals

{snip}

But the real coup in this investigation is the database work that shows that for certain categories of arrest, Cubans vastly outnumber all other foreign nationals. In Florida, for two types of crime, they even far outnumber native-born Americans: Though Cuban-born people make up 4 percent of the state’s population, they represent 72 percent of all federal cargo theft arrests, and 72 percent of all federal healthcare fraud arrests, according to the Sun Sentinel’s analysis.

The Sun Sentinel rightly noted that the Miami Herald had investigated health care fraud committed by Cuban nationals several years ago. But the Miami paper was never able to nail down the full extent of the problem. (I worked at the Herald at the time, though not on that project.)

The scope surprised the Sun Sentinel reporters, even after they had spent months conducting interviews and combing through state and federal records.

“We couldn’t believe it,” Maines told me. “The cops had told us and the prosecutors had told us, but the numbers surprised us.”

Rest of article here.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Stunning information. Hope the reporters get a prize for this series. n/t

[Mika]

4. Flashy fugitive detained in Cuba after flaunting (stolen) riches

Flashy fugitive detained in Cuba after flaunting riches

{snips}

Cuban police earlier this month raided the gated home of a U.S. fugitive in the town of Guanabacoa, outside Havana, causing authorities in Florida to hope for extradition. Gilberto Martinez Suarez is wanted on major credit card fraud charges.
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Martinez was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami in September, along with two others, on counterfeit credit-card charges and identity theft.
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By the time prosecutors filed charges in that case, Martinez was already gone. Charged in May 2013 with a similar offense in Martin County, he bonded out of jail and took off to Cuba.

He wasn't the first. The Sun Sentinel found a pipeline, facilitated by U.S. policy, that enables Cuban-born criminals escape to the island with their riches, well out of reach of American authorities.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/fl-gilberto-martinez-cuba-fugitive-20150123-story.html