DHS Enhancing Enforcement of Travel Restrictions to Cuba

[Osolomia]

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 10, 2003

Effective immediately, the Department of Homeland Security will step up enforcement of travel restrictions to Cuba that are already in place. Enforcement efforts will be enhanced to curtail illegal travel and transport of goods and funds to Cuba. Also, the Department will be involved in the expansion of programs that promote the safe, legal, and orderly migration from Cuba.

Homeland Security officers assigned to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will increase inspection of all persons traveling directly to Cuba and arriving back directly from Cuba. Current U.S. law strictly limits permitted travel to Cuba to journalists, official Congressional visits, persons engaged in educational purposes, and family visits by Cuban-Americans. In all cases, there are specific limits regarding the transport of money and goods, and in certain cases, the frequency of visits. There are also limits on items that may be brought back into the U.S. by people permitted to travel to Cuba. CBP officers will increase their inspection efforts to uncover those persons who violate the restrictions in place.

Homeland Security officers assigned to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), will assist in this effort by ensuring that travelers from the U.S to Cuba, who pass through Canada, Mexico, and other countries en route, are not violating the Cuban embargo. DHS will use intelligence and investigative resources to identify travelers or businesses engaged in activities that circumvent the embargo.

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=1937

Way to go Dems!

[Judi Lynn]

1. Hey, thanks!

Doesn't this grimey crew understand that when we get an ELECTED President in there, he will OVERTURN these stupid, heavy-handed, third-reich measures?

From the statement you posted from the Department of H.S.:
Homeland Security officers assigned to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will increase inspection of all persons traveling directly to Cuba and arriving back directly from Cuba.



Homeland Security officers assigned to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will increase inspection of all persons traveling directly to Cuba and arriving back directly from Cuba.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I know we look stupid on the Cuba issue right now, but you can't forget it was former President Jimmy Carter who, in one case, suspended the travel ban, and Bill Clinton in the second case, who started easing it again.

It was Eisenhower, Reagan, and George W. Bush who sought to nail the door shut to Cuba for American citizens, while holding it wide open for Cuban "exiles," the very people who have claimed to "escape," to "flee," to return without ANY actual restraints from the U.S. Government whatsoever. (They have been said to be limited to one visit per year, but people I have heard from Miami have said it has NEVER been enforced.)

PATHETIC.

D.U.'ers can help the process by calling their Senators and letting them know what they think. There are Repubicans on the Bipartisan Senate Cuba Working Group, so if your Senator is Republican, he'll be aware that a lot of Republicans already favor ending both the travel ban and the embargo for various reasons!

[Osolomia]

2. With Dems prez contenders like Lieberman why bash Bush!

Bush Seeks Tighter Curb on Cuba Travel
President's Plan Draws Mixed Reaction on Hill
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 11, 2003; Page A26

... Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) called for a hard-line approach, saying that Bush "must match his rhetoric on Cuba with strong action, something he has failed to do in the past."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8163-2003Oct10.html

[Judi Lynn]

3. He's popular in Miami, he thinks!

Who doesn't remember seeing all the Cuban-American demonstrators who suddenly showed up ALL AT ONCE in downtown Miami, and continued to show up in every Florida shot after that?

They really adored him, as we remember!

[Osolomia]

4. Senator Byron Dorgan (D) has some cojones!

Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan, who has co-sponsored a bill to lift travel restrictions, says it is a regressive policy. "It is obvious that politics, not any policy that makes sense, is driving the President's plan," he said in a statement released in Washington.

"This is an absurd policy," said the release. "At a time when the Department of Homeland Security still is unable to inspect most cargo on ships and airplanes, the president plans to divert its resources to try to track down and penalize American tourists and business men and women who travel to Cuba."

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/10/10/cubaus031010

But who cares!

[Judi Lynn]

6. Byron Dorgan is a terrific Democratic Senator

Sure wish he had a lot more fans by now!

(snip) In recent years, American travel magazines have been flooded with images of vintage Chevys, hand-rolled cigars, mojitos and virgin beaches beckoning American tourists to catch a "last chance" glimpse of Cuba in the sunset days of Fidel Castro's regime. But Americans might want to think twice before booking a flight. The Bush Administration has launched an aggressive crackdown on Americans who violate the Cuba travel ban, a provision of the 40-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. This spring, the U.S. Treasury Department stepped up enforcement of the travel restrictions, sending customs agents to airports in Canada and the Bahamas to catch Americans disembarking from planes arriving from Cuba. Between May and July, the department sent letters to more than 443 people, informing them of fines averaging $7,500 for illegal visits. The Treasury Department says the surge in fines is due to a backlog in paperwork, but it marks a departure from the approach during the Clinton administration, when lax enforcement and new avenues for legal trips raised the number of Americans traveling to Cuba to an estimated 45,000 in 2000. A growing faction in Congress thinks it's time to revisit U.S. policies toward Cuba. In July, the House voted to lift restrictions on travel to Cuba, and Sen. Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, hopes the Senate will follow suit this month. Dorgan chairs the Senate appropriations subcommittee that controls funding for the Treasury Department, and he says he will introduce a measure to cut Treasury Department funds to enforce travel restrictions. In addition, he may introduce separate, more ambitious bills to abolish the travel ban completely and ease the overall impact of the embargo. (snip/...)

http://www.ibike.org/cuba/ofac/010817-dorgan.htm

Thisarticle was written in August, 2001. Look how far we've come!



Can you imagine how much money it would cost to keep sending agents all over the place to cover every airport where Americans might just slip in, after going to Cuba through any third country?

He's not interested in saving an taxpayers any money at all. He's looking out for number Bush, and this imbecilic strongarming the U.S. citizens will make him even more popular with the voting/contributing Cuban block in Miami. Apparently he's not that worried about the REST of us getting too hacked off over this.

[Osolomia]

5. If enforcement of the travel ban is now being done by Homeland Security

does this mean that even if the upcoming Senate vote passes and Bush does not veto it American-Americans are still effectively travel banned, except now its the DHS rather than OFAC on your tail?

What a shame!

[Judi Lynn]

7. New article on Bush's great plans Cuba

Bush Seeks Tighter Curb on Cuba Travel
President's Plan Draws Mixed Reaction on Hill
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 11, 2003; Page A26


President Bush announced yesterday that his administration will work harder to identify and punish Americans who visit Cuba in violation of U.S. laws, whether they travel from the United States or through a third country.

Such travel only helps "prop up the dictator and his cronies," Bush said, referring to Cuban President Fidel Castro. "Clearly, the Castro regime will not change by its own choice, but Cuba must change."
The measures were among a set of policy refinements Bush announced to an invited audience of Castro opponents in the Rose Garden. The announcement, certain to resonate among Cuban Americans in the crucial electoral states of Florida and New Jersey, came as Bush steps up his reelection effort.

Bush also established a government committee to plan for Cuba's post-Castro future, naming Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel R. Martinez as co-chairmen. He said the administration will allow more Cubans to emigrate and will expand the U.S. distribution of radios and reading material in Cuba.(snip/...)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8163-2003Oct10.html

Gee, those little-taxpayer funded shortwave radios that allow Cubans to pick up taxpayer-funded, Cuban "exile"-staffed and programmed Radio Marti are just dandy, aren't they?

However, if the Cuban citizens don't all get their own, they may just have to settle for LISTENING TO MIAMI RADIO STATIONS WHICH THEY ALREADY GET ON THEIR OWN RADIOS. Jeezus H. Keeerist.

When Americans FINALLY get to go to Cuba in great numbers, they'll discover Cubans ALREADY read tons of stuff, and are very well up to date on American literature and current affairs.

I wonder if Bush intends to send lots of little "Hungry Caterpillar" books, after all.

[Osolomia]

8. There's no excuse for DUers ignorance of what Bush is doing

right under our noses, no excuse and no one else to blame for the silent complicity of the Dems whatsoever imho.