After the Department of Homeland Security arraigned and facilitated Cuban officials a tour of Miami International Airport (MIA), South Florida lawmakers are understandably upset and voiced their opposition to the Biden Administration’s openness to work with a state sponsor of terrorism.
The denunciation of the TSA-led tour of the Cuban officials was bipartisan. Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R) was the first to sound the alarm of the visit, calling the move a “direct slap in the face to the Cuban exile community here in Miam-Dade County.”
We are allowing agents of a nation that is a sponsor of state terrorism to give them access to secure areas of TSA, that is incredibly dumb,” said Rep. Gimenez, who has now exclusively told The Floridian that he is currently authoring legislation to prevent governments like Cuba from being allowed access to U.S. assets.
“You are going to be giving access to our security protocols, procedures, and equipment to agents from a nation that is a state sponsor of terrorism. They are a state sponsor of terrorism, why would you want to give them access to your security, anti-terrorism measures,” Gimenez told The Floridian on Wednesday.
The legislation is currently at the seed stage so the exact details of the measure are not yet available.
This is not the first time Cuban officials have visited the Miami airport. During the Obama presidency, a Cuban delegation toured the airport in 2011 and 2015, and in speaking to The Floridian, House Democrats are now questioning the move by the Biden Administration.
Rep. Maxwell Frost said that he was not privy to anymore information about the tour that has already been reported, but that the tour is “obviously concerning” and questioned who these Cuban officials were and the purpose of their visit.
Rep. Darren Soto reiterated what Rep. Gimenez said about Cuba being a state sponsor of terrorism.
“We shouldn’t have government officials from a country that’s on the state sponsor of terrorism list touring our facilities,” said Rep. Soto
In speaking to both Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Jared Moskowitz, both members expressed deep concern and disappointment in the administration’s facilitation of the visit.
T”hat’s wholly unacceptable. We have to find out how the heck that happened because that should never have been allowed to have Cuban officials in a secure facility,” said Rep. Moskowitz who also said that he would support Gimenez’s potential bill “500%.”
Rep. Wasserman Schultz stated her specific concerns over the visit, and reached out to the administration for clarification on what “security measures were taken to protect the integrity of our Homeland Security protocols.”
Wasserman Schultz also pressed the Biden administration to insist upon the Cuban regime to release three Cuban political prisoners.
"I’ve repeatedly raised the alarm about threats posed to Floridians and U.S. national security by Cuban intelligence and their Kremlin and Chinese Communist Party collaborators. I understand the importance of diplomatic conversations and I have urged the Administration to insist on the release of Cuban political prisoners like Maykel Castillo Peréz and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara as a precondition to further engagement,” stated Rep. Wasserman Schultz.
The Floridian has also learned that Florida Senator Marco Rubio will potentially introduce a similar measure to Gimenez’s probably legislation in the U.S. Senate.
