Not allowing all American Citizens to travel to Cuba is unconstitutional

[flamingdem]

Does anyone have insight as to WHY Obama is moving so slowly to end travel restrictions to Cuba??


http://thehavananote.com/2009/04/the_uncertain_impact_of_the_su.html

from the Havana Note:

- snip
Needless to say, my biggest personal disappointment is that the Administration did not take advantage of the Summit to announce use of Presidential power to allow unlimited travel for the other eleven non-tourist categories, rather than just for Cuban Americans.

Whether on 14th Amendment grounds or common sense, it is untenable for an Obama Administration to institutionalize ethnic discrimination in the right to travel. Cuban Americans are not necessarily the best ambassadors (due to inherent tensions between migrant and resident populations), and are certainly not the only legitimate communicators of US values and perspectives to Cuba and of Cuban realities to the US.

The Administration will soon face a growing sense of resentment among its strongest supporters and even more blatant disregard of the law than currently exists. The solution is clearly Congress restoring our own human rights by ending all travel restrictions. That will be easier to achieve with White House support. possibly based on a private understanding that Cuba will make its own gesture, similarly ending limits on travel by its own citizens.

If the Administration exercised its power to enable travel now for educational, religious, humanitarian, cultural, etc. purposes, that action will move us toward full travel and carry forward the amazing spirit the President brought to and from the Summit.

[Captain Hilts]

1. They can. You just receive no support/protection from the State Dept. A lot go by way of Canada.nt

[flamingdem]

2. But they risk a fine and getting their passport flagged. PLUS you have to lie

and many feel uncomfortable doing that. There is the little problem of the immigration form where you have to fill in this question:

LIST ALL COUNTRIES VISITED ON THIS TRIP

[Captain Hilts]

5. The law doesn't seem to be enforced all that much. Going through Canada, they don't know...

where you've been. Your passport doesn't get stamped in Cuba.

[flamingdem]

6. Your passport does get a double stamp on the same day which invites questions

The reason Americans do not go is the travel restrictions. Very few want to risk legal problems which are still at issue.

[Captain Hilts]

7. I've known LOTS of folks that do this through Canada and have had no problem.

Travel restrictions are the reason I don't go, but a lot of people are not deterred at all.

And Cuba wants the money and Canada doesn't want trouble with the US, so everybody turns a blind eye.

[flamingdem]

9. You're missing the point. We should be beyond that ASAP nt

[Captain Hilts]

10. I agree. But this law has not been enforced for years. nt

[flamingdem]

11. Incorrect! There are many travelers who have had to pay fines. I know some

of them. They have settled and paid usually around a thousand dollars.

DO YOUR INTERNET RESEARCH!

[Captain Hilts]

12. I know many who have not. Clearly, this is a personal issue for you. nt

[flamingdem]

14. More like a poorly thought through issue for you

I am concerned that Obama is incorrect and misinformed on this issue.

He is usually better informed. He stated in Trinidad for example that Cuba doesn't have freedom of religion.

Someone told him that and it is not true.

[Captain Hilts]

15. I do not support the policy. When I lived in Canada in the 90s and early 00s a LOT

of US folks went without any penalty whatsoever. A lot of musicians and just folks that wanted a cheap holiday.

I wonder what percentage of travellers 443 is.

Like you, I do not agree with this policy.

But, take a powder.

[flamingdem]

16. You kept saying irrelevant things so you take your own powder doll nt

[Captain Hilts]

19. You're the one with 'Latin music' in your profile. It's an emotional issue for you.

Gee whiz, we agree this needs to be changed.

Over and out.

[flamingdem]

20. And if you like cigars can I accuse you of the same?

You need to take a class in logic. This is a constitutional issue and THAT is what matters to all Americans.

Maybe not you if you are in Canada.

Do you think I'm the only American concerned about this issue? Note the hundreds of threads on this topic on DU.

DU DUH!

[flamingdem]

13. OK I did a Google and on the first search it's right there - 443 letters seeking average fines of $7

in one year.

Reprinted from the Miami Herald:

http://www.ibike.org/cuba/ofac/010803-mh.htm

U.S. clamps down on defiant travelers to Cuba
By Tim Johnson
[e-mail]

WASHINGTON -- U.S. citizens who defy restrictions on travel to Cuba increasingly are returning stateside to find an unexpected souvenir: A letter from the feds demanding they pay $7,500 or so in fines.

The number of such penalty letters has suddenly spiked, and unsuspecting U.S. travelers are yelping in surprise at the potential cost of their travels.

``I think it's very stupid,'' said Donna, a 64-year-old retired social worker in Chicago who asked that her last name not be used. After a bike trip to Cuba, she got notice in June that the Treasury Department plans to levy $7,650 in fines against her. ``They should leave people like me alone who do no harm.''

From May 4 to July 30, a division of the U.S. Treasury Department that monitors travel to Cuba sent out 443 letters seeking average fines of $7,500 -- a sharp increase from the 74 letters mailed from Jan. 3 to May 3.

Those receiving penalty letters include New York City high school students and teachers, scuba divers, cyclists, a Massachusetts bird watcher, a Santeria buff from the Pacific Northwest -- a panoply of Americans intrigued by the tropical communist bastion of President Fidel Castro and willing to wriggle under the legal trip wire. Interest in Cuba has surged despite -- or perhaps because of -- a longstanding law that forbids U.S. citizens from spending money on the island.

The travel restrictions are now in roiling waters as the White House and Congress veer in sharply different directions on policy toward Cuba. Staking out a hard line, President Bush pledged July 13 to detect and punish those who visit Cuba illegally ``to the fullest extent with a view toward preventing unlicensed and excessive travel . . . ''

A majority of the U.S. House, meanwhile, wants to facilitate travel to Cuba. On a 240-186 vote, the House on July 26 denied the executive branch any funds to enforce the travel restrictions. The measure now heads to the Senate, where observers say it could pass in the autumn.

To OFAC: Travel, Trade, Licenses and Legislation

[DevonRex]

3. What do you mean slowly? That was the policy for decades and in one pen stroke

Obama changed it. Maybe in another pen stroke he'll change it again. But he is certainly not moving slowly.

[flamingdem]

4. Wrong! It's no advance over the policy in 2004 before Bush added restrictions

that took away the right for most students to travel and for people to people and cultural exchange programs.

NONE OF THAT HAS BEEN RESCINDED. It's still next to impossible to get a special license from OFAC. The treasury department still makes it very difficult also for journalists.

[flamingdem]

8. Wayne Smith ex-head of US Interests Section in Havana criticizes the Obama Administration

for not going further. Again I ask WHY? What does he want to accomplish when we trade freely with China and Vietname, much worse human rights offenders???


-- snip
Mr. Smith says Obama needs to make a clean break from the Bush administration – both in personnel and policy. One good-faith step, he says, would be to reestablish the academic exchanges and intergovernment dialogue that existed before the Bush administration.

The Obama administration also should make clear that it is no longer official US policy to bring down the Cuban government, says Smith, a former head of the US Interests Section in Havana – a sort of quasi embassy. "We can talk while still having our disagreements. Then maybe we can get to the embargo in a few years."


http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0413/p90s01-usfp.html

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

17. Ethnic discrimination?

Oh what a load of bullshit.

Travel to Cuba is restricted to everybody, except those who are visiting family.

Cuban American but don't have family in Cuba? Can't go.

Cuban American and have immediate family in Cuba, but aren't going to visit them? Can't go.

Pale assed white guy with red hair and freckles who wants to visit mom and dad in Cuba? Sure, you can go.

[flamingdem]

18. I think that the Cubans sometimes consider themselves to be a "raza"

due to all of their racial mixing but there are plenty of blue-eyed descendents of Spaniards, French, British dancing rumba there

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

21. Does that tear you up inside?

I understand there are an awful lot of know-nothing gringos that get all hot and bothered over the word "raza."

[flamingdem]

22. It's the old identity politics trip

fortunately someone on the wane after our mixed pres took the lead. Whew!

I remember a problem with a colleague because I even discussed race at all. He was a very "politically correct" person who felt that one should not separate humans by race, ever.

[Thothmes]

23. Please cite the court case that declares the

travel restrictions to Cuba as unconstitutional.