‘Today’s Announcement Creates a Very Real Security Risk for the American People’
Reaction to President Trump’s announcement that he signed an order which enacts new restrictions that curtail travel and commercial ties between the U.S. and Cuba is being met with sharp criticism on Capitol Hill by Congressional Republicans in both houses Friday.
In a statement released by his office Friday afternoon, not long after the president’s announcement, Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake said:
“Any policy change that diminishes the ability of Americans to travel freely to Cuba is not in the best interests of the United States or the Cuban people. It is time Senate leadership finally allowed a vote on my bipartisan bill to fully lift these archaic restrictions which do not exist for travel by Americans to any other country in the world.”Â
Flake, along with his co-sponsor Vermont Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy and 53 of their Senate colleagues, had proposed the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act in 2015. The legislation specified that “the President may not prohibit or otherwise regulate travel to or from Cuba by U.S. citizens or legal residents, or any of the transactions incident to such travel, including banking transactions.â€
As of December 2015, Flake’s bill has been referred to the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations committees, and is awaiting decisions by the committee chairs as to whether the bills will move past the committee stage. Leahy and Flake’s bill, if passed, would lift the restrictions on U.S. tourism to Cuba, but has not yet been brought to the floor for a vote in the Senate.
President Barack Obama had acted unilaterally on easing some of the restrictions last year including the reopening of the U.S. Embassy in the capital city of Havana. His three day state visit last March marked the first time a U.S. chief executive had visited Cuba since President Calvin Coolidge attended the Pan American Conference in Havana in January, 1928.
Senator Leahy also released a statement, accusing the White House of reopening a declaration of war with the island nation with the abrupt reversal of the Obama administration’s policy.Â
“This is a hollow retreat from normalization that takes a swipe at Americans’ freedom to travel, at our national interest, and at the people of Cuba who yearn to reconnect with us – all just to score a political favor with a small and dwindling faction here at home,” Leahy wrote. “This White House, by reaffirming the embargo, has re-declared war on the Cuban people.”
House Republicans were also unhappy with the president’s policy change. Minnesota Republican Justin Amash accused Trump of abandoning his campaign promise to fight the “status quo.”
“Most importantly, today’s announcement creates a very real security risk for the American people and our homeland by inviting foreign nations into our backyard to fill a void that today’s announcement is creating,” Emmer said.Â
Two Congressional Republicans who had backed the president’s decision, Senator Marco Rubio and Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, both from Florida, joined Trump onstage in Little Miami where the announcement was made.Â
Rubio is known to have led a behind-the-scenes effort to pressure the president into taking a harder line with Cuba. As the Republican Senator spoke to the crowd prior to the president, he related that he had multiple discussions with Trump regarding a Cuban policy that was a return to the previous policies.
“Six weeks ago, the president gathered with his cabinet and made a clear decision: we are going to do whatever it takes so the Cuban people can be free,†Rubio claimed.
Brody Levesque is the Chief Political Correspondent for The New Civil Rights Movement.
You may contact Brody at Brody.Levesque@thenewcivilrightsmovement.com
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