Lincoln Diaz-Balart: “One of the cases that has most impacted me in the last months as I have looked toward August and the impending cutoff of…”

“One of the cases that has most impacted me in the last months as I have looked toward August and the impending cutoff of SSI to legal, taxpaying immigrants is the case of Guido Diaz. Guido Diaz was a political prisoner for years in Castro's gulags, beaten daily as a prisoner of conscience. Finally, he managed to get out of the totalitarian nightmare that today is Cuba and arrive in the United States. Shortly after, apparently the cumulative effect of the daily beatings caused a stroke, a massive stroke for Guido Diaz, and he is in a wheelchair. He is incognizant, and as much as I am sure that he would love to become a citizen of this great country, he cannot do so. What we are doing today, Mr. Chairman, is making sure that the Guido Diazes who fell through the cracks in the reform that was implemented just some months ago are saved, and that those legal immigrants in the United States who cannot become citizens will not be cut off, those who were here legally in August of 1996. I commend my colleagues for their support and urge all of my colleagues to join in supporting this bipartisan amendment.”