New Trump Travel Restrictions Strike a Blow to Havana, But Miami’s Cubans are Caught in the Crossfire
A reinstatement of President Trump’s travel bans earlier this week will put families in a state of limbo with immigrant communities uncertain of what will come next
A new set of travel restrictions went into effect on Monday the 9th of June as President Donald Trump has vowed to follow through on a campaign promise to reduce the flow of illegal migration, but now many of the city’s legal residents of the Cuban community have become collateral damage.
For more than a half-century since Castro’s takeover of Havana in 1959, millions of Cubans 90 miles south of Florida’s coastline have fled the Caribbean island to find safe harbor in the United States.
On the 4th of June, a political broad-stroke was struck at the Trump White House when the administration by executive order, issued a proclamation that will make the journey more difficult, expanding restrictions on foreign nationals from several countries, including Cuba.
Those who are likely to be most directly impacted by the policy change are those currently in the family reunification process – a program that allows legal permanent residents to apply to have their family members and relatives living abroad, eventually reunited in the United States. The program has now been suspended.
Cubans also affected by the measure will be those applying for new visas. Holders of the popular B-1 business visa are also banned from entry, including B-2 tourists as well as student visa holders studying in the United States. However, immigrants with active visas and certain other classifications will be exempt from the new restrictions.
President Trump announced in a White House press release last week that “it is the policy of the United States to protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.”
The reasoning behind the move was referred to the recent terrorist attack a couple of weeks ago in Boulder, Colorado by an Egyptian national residing in the country illegally by overstaying his visa.
Egypt is not on the list of the administration’s recent restrictions.
The president also classified Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism”, accusing the regime of failing to “cooperate or share sufficient law enforcement information with the United States”, adding that the authoritarian regime has “historically refused to accept back its removable nationals.”
The Cuban government condemned the measure as “racist.”
Bruno Rodríguez - Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Affairs - posted on X shortly after the proclamation, denouncing the administration in Washington for “hindering contact between families”, and harming “the cultural exchanges between both countries.”
Analysts have pointed out that travel bans like the one implemented last week are not only political but are also often used as economic tools to pressure foreign governments to cooperate on various issues.
Daniel F. Runde of the Center for Strategic and International Studies asserts that such tools like travel restrictions or economic embargos, although “conducive to regime change” - a longstanding policy objective of the U.S. government towards Cuba - can also cause “profound humanitarian consequences” where such policies are applied.
Home to the largest number of Cubans outside of the island, Miami-Dade County with over one million residents of Cuban heritage is the largest Cuban diaspora in the entire world. Miami’s Cuban residents assert that Cuban history, heritage, and dreams have largely shaped the city into what it is today – and still do, rallying a strong community of proud and loyal Cuban Americans who have worked to carve out a prosperous future for generations.
But Cuba itself is arguably less prosperous and more strained than it has ever been before when over two-thirds of the island’s population rely upon assistance from family members who live abroad. Businesses, schools, and local programs depend on money sent back home, while those who are most dependent on these remittances are the individual native households who never have a chance to look beyond the end of a single day.
The latest travel restrictions from the Trump White House will likely complicate things for the government in Havana. The Cuban regime has been reeling for several years with a population stirring with unrest over economic pain and financial desperation.
Washington will continue to apply pressure on the Cuban regime, urging political and economic reform after decades of the island’s isolation from Western influence and allying with other autocratic governments in Moscow and Caracas.
Alternatively, the travel ban will also stunt further migration from Cuba to South Florida, the primary destination for Cuban refugees and political asylum-seekers, ultimately reducing a crucial source of revenue for Havana’s coffers.
Reports have found that international remittances sent to Cuba amounted to an estimated $1.5 billion to $3.5 billion in 2019. However, a substantial portion of those is inevitably absorbed by the state-owned military holding company GAESA, which retains control over the financial services that facilitate these transactions.
Remittances to Cuba in 2019 “constituted the government’s third largest source of dollar revenue after the service and tourism industries”, Runde found. Any disruptions or long-term cutoff of this crucial revenue source and financial safety net for struggling Cubans will have a trickle-down effect on the island’s poorest, negatively impacting those who are most in need of U.S. remittances.
According to the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH), an independent organization based in Madrid, "89% of the Cuban population [on the island] will live in conditions of extreme poverty”, while 61% “cannot afford the essentials to survive.”
In an island with basic services nonexistent, extreme inflation, crumbling infrastructure, a poor healthcare system, empty food shelves, and constant energy shortages that have aroused widespread protests across Havana in recent years – the most essential materials like food, fuel, and medication for the disabled, and old and infirm are always unaffordable, and perpetually scarce.
The government in Cuba is undergoing extreme pressure from its citizens as demonstrations have become more frequent. Corruption, hyperinflation, and draconian fiscal policies are absorbing more money from ordinary Cuban citizens than they can make up for in order to support their livelihoods.
Illegal black markets for U.S. dollars, medicine, food, and even internet plans are widespread, illustrating the distrust and lack of confidence in the national government.
Family unification will also be challenged as the revamped process for entry into the United States will be more stringent.
Prominent Republican congressional leaders with constituents in Miami like Carlos Gimenez and María Elvira Salazar have become outspoken on the matter. Salazar has conceded that travel restrictions can be used as “temporary tools” while at the same time expressing discomfort at the idea of targeting asylum-seekers and separating immigrant families. Salazar has urged Trump to target criminals stating, “kick out every criminal here illegally,” and “we should keep our focus on them.”
Salazar has also posted on X after the Trump administration issued its proclamation, “I am fully aware, and heartbroken, about the uncertainty now gripping Florida's 27th District because of the recent immigration actions of the Administration”, exposing new fissures for the Republican Party on an issue that was thought to rally total unity.
Last week, a young 10-year-old girl recording from her home in Havana went viral on social media for posting a video pleading with President Trump to reverse course on these measures, “I am a child,” she says, “who is waiting for an interview to reunite with my parents... With great pride”, she adds, “I ask you to reconsider... so I can grow up in that beautiful country and become a citizen.”