Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava Criticizes Trump's Travel Ban

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava condemned President Donald Trump's recent travel ban on citizens of twelve countries, including three from Latin America, from entering the United States.

"We learned from past travel bans that the end result is families being divided and loved one unable to see each other," Cava said on Thursday. "The work of our federal government should be to protect our borders and pass comprehensive immigration reform, not tear down our communities."

According to Trump's executive order (EO), the 12 countries fully restricted are Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

The order also included a partial ban on Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.

In response, Cava said she was "deeply concerned" by the order, specifically regarding its impact on the Latin American community. Miami-Dade is home to one of the largest Haitian, Cuban, and Venezuelan communities in the United States.

Cava added that the decision "further divides us as Americans and harms hardworking families contributing to the essential fabric of our community."

The EO highlighted the visa overstay rates of Haiti, Cuba, and Venezuela as reasons for the restrictions, which were taken from a Fiscal Year 2023 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Entry/Exit Overstay Report.

According to the report, Haiti had a B‑1/B-2 visa overstay rate of 31.38 percent and an F, M, and J visa overstay rate of 25.05 percent. Cuba had a B-1/B-2 visa overstay rate of 7.69 percent and an F, M, and J visa overstay rate of 18.75 percent, while Venezuela had a B1/B2 overstay rate of 9.83 percent.

All three countries were also flagged for their lack of vetting, cooperation, and sharing of foreign national information with the United States. In addition, the EO highlighted Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism for its inclusion.

"As President, I must act to protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people.  I remain committed to engaging with those countries willing to cooperate to improve information-sharing and identity-management procedures, and to address both terrorism-related and public-safety risks," the EO said.

The travel ban goes into effect on Monday.