Thread: Cuba denies visas for House lawmakers

Cuba denies visas for House lawmakers




By Cassi Pollock, Rudy Takala
Published June 24, 2016

Cuba is refusing to approve visa applications for members of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, according to the committee's chairman.

Members were hoping to leave on Friday afternoon to examine lagging security in the country's airports, which are set to begin making flights to the U.S. this year. The lawmakers were forced to cancel when their applications were denied that morning.

"We wanted to look at their airport security ... because TSA has been backchanneling to us that it's not adequate," said Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas. "So I attempted to go down there to just look at them, there were five of us, and they denied our visas."

Officials say Cuba is set to begin making 110 daily flights into the U.S. from 10 airports in the country this fall, but lack security measures that include scanners and bomb-sniffing dogs.

"This whole, 'Let's open Cuba up to everybody,' they just denied the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee a visa application," McCaul said. "My thoughts are that they just did not want me going down there looking at security, because I could see problems."

Other members who were denied included Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., who chairs the subcommittee on transportation security, Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., and Rep. Henry Cueller, D-Texas. They had hoped to inspect airports in cities including Havana, and to visit the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay.

McCaul noted that drugs already make it into the U.S. on planes coming from countries like Puerto Rico, which have security superior to Cuba. "If you can get drugs on a plane, you can get a bomb on a plane," McCaul said.

Later in the day, McCaul's office released a satirical image of the chairman staring into the distance, papers and briefcase in hand. "The terminal 90 miles from inspection," the image said, "the closest the Homeland Security Committee can get to Cuba."

It adds, "It is easier for Cubans to come to the U.S. than for the ... committee to get to Cuba."

McCaul said members were still contemplating what to do next, even as flights are still scheduled to proceed. "It's hard to know where we go from here. We're not going to let the issue die, because it's too important."

In a statement, Katko said officials were still unsure if even federal air marshals would be allowed on flights to or from Cuba, which was still classified by the State Department as a state sponsor of terror just a year ago.

"The administration is eager to have as many people as possible visit Cuba – except for those who are attempting to examine Cuban security infrastructure," Katko said. "We still don't know if Cuba has the adequate body scanners and explosive detection systems in place, whether it has the technology to screen for fraudulent passports or ID, whether or how aviation workers are screened, and if Federal Air Marshals will be allowed to fly missions to Cuba on commercial flights.

"This is a government that was only just removed as a state sponsor of terrorism list one year ago, and it is not enough to rely on the Castro regime's word that these airports are secure."


http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/cu...tm_medium=feed

"It's hard to know where we go from here"!!

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Really...start by booting Obama out the door then terminate the Cuban Adjustment Act.

Send them ALL back! No taxpayer benefits...cut them off...no more of our money!

And ground all flights into and out of Cuba! That includes the cruise ships.

When Trump said they are "stupid"...he meant it!