DELAHUNT INTRODUCES LEGISLATION TO LIFT RESTRICTIONS ON AMERICANS TRAVELING TO CUBA

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Bill Delahunt (D-MA), Chairman of the International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight Subcommittee of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Congressman Ray LaHood (R-IL), a member of the House Committee on Appropriations, held a press conference today regarding legislation they introduced that will permit Cuban-Americans to travel at will to Cuba in order to provide assistance to their family members living on the island.

This is the text of Congressman Delahunt's statement at today's press conference:

I'm Bill Delahunt from Massachusetts, and I'm the Democratic co-chair of the House Cuba Working Group. Today my colleagues and I have introduced "The Cuban-American Family Rights Restoration Act."

This bill would allow American citizens and permanent residents with relatives in Cuba to travel there whenever they want, without having to get permission from the US government.  It would allow them to carry remittances with them in any amount to give to their families.  And it would prohibit the President from imposing any restrictions on family travel.

This bill is about our Cuba policy.  A policy that I believe has been a total failure.  A policy that has reduced American influence on the island to almost nothing as dramatic changes are occurring.

But the restrictions imposed on families by the Bush Administration make it about something much more.  This is about moral values. Family values.  This bill is an effort to change an immoral policy.  One that has caused incredible pain and suffering to our own citizens as well as Cubans.  And tarnished our image in the world.

As part of the US embargo, ordinary Americans are prohibited from traveling to Cuba.  But until 2004, Cuban-Americans were effectively exempt from this restriction, if the purpose was to visit relatives.  These family visits are critical for Cubans on the island. Their relatives bring money, medicine, clothes, and humanitarian supplies. But they are just as important for Cuban-Americans. Because these visits let them fulfill that most basic of human obligations: helping your family. They tell those still on the island: We care. You have not been abandoned.  We won’t let politics interfere with family.

But in 2004, President Bush imposed brutal new restrictions on Cuban-Americans. He redefined the word “family” to exclude aunts and uncles and cousins.  Now Cuban-Americans can only go to Cuba if they get permission. Even worse, they can only go once every three years. With no humanitarian exemptions, not even for terminal illness or death. The callous nature of this policy was revealed by one of the authors of the policy.  Here’s what he said:

"An individual can decide when they want to travel once every three years and the decision is up to them. So if they have a dying relative, they have to figure out when they want to travel."

That was Dan Fisk, who was then Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere. Now he works in the White House.  Think about what he said. If your mother and father die within three years of each other, you have to decide which funeral to attend. Imagine having to make that choice. It is stunning in its cruelty.

It’s anti-family. It’s anti-American.  And it only magnifies the pain and the anguish and the heartache that Cubans and Cuban-Americans already have to suffer because of the dispute between our two governments.

There’s no need to describe each of the cases of ordinary people who have been hurt by this immoral policy.  I’ll just mention one: that of Carlos Lazo, who won the Bronze Star in Iraq.  But when he was home on a two-week furlough, and wanted to visit his sons in Cuba, he could not.  Carlos risked his life for us in combat in Iraq, and we deny him the right to see his sons?  That is heartless.  That is wrong.  And it goes against  everything that America claims t be about.

Many Cuban exiles recognize this, even those who are fiercely opposed to Fidel Castro.  Here’s a quote from a blog on the Internet that’s called “Kill Castro.”  So you can guess where its authors are coming from.  But they support ending restrictions on travel and remittances.  This is what they have to say:

“Why do we want to go against the grain of normal human feelings, which are – according to our culture – to help people in need? Why do we want people to forget about their families and to ignore their pleas?  Is it going to destroy the tyranny? Or is it going to send a message to Cuba that is totally negative? Do we think that the people of Cuba is really going to ignore the fact that some of us are for their punishment? Who gave us moral authority to tell free people –Cuban exiles – what to do, and who gave us moral authority to impose only one view on them? Our position is that there should be total freedom to do what you want, go to Cuba, or not, send money or not, and that's going to be your own personal decision and responsibility. It's not our position to dictate what anybody should do.”

That is why we are introducing this bill today.  So while this bill may technically be about US policy toward Cuba.  But what it is really about is restoring some of America’s moral authority.  If we are truly going to be a leader on human rights, we need to end this immoral policy.  And this bill will do that.

Now I’d like to introduce my colleague Ray LaHood of Illinois, a member of the Cuba Working Group.