Customs and Border Protection officers in Florida spend so much time searching passengers coming back from Cuba they may be missing actual threats to the country, says the Government Accountability Office. A report from the agency today says one in five passengers arriving in the States from Cuba are given intensive inspections, despite the fact that most of them have visited the island legally. (On average, customs officers put just three percent of international arrivals through the wringer.)
All the attention on enforcing the embargo on Cuba, says the GAO, keeps agents from other important work:
[Customs and Border Protection] data and interviews with agency officials suggest that the secondary inspections of Cuba arrivals at the airport may strain CBP's ability to carry out its mission of keeping terrorists, criminals and other inadmissible aliens from entering the country.
The report notwithstanding, the US State Department says that enforcing the embargo remains a priority. President Bush actually tightened sanctions on Cuba in 2004, but presidential hopefuls Ron Paul and Chris Dodd have both said they'd work to end the embargo if elected. Until then, Americans are stuck sneaking to the island and hoping they won't get caught coming home.
With all the talk about Cuba among the candidates for President, maybe CNN should consider holding a debate at Guantanamo Bay. First Obamatalks travel in Miami, then Chris Doddbrought it up. Now almost-a-libertarian candidate Ron Paul, an obstetrician and member of the U.S. House of Representatives from East Texas, has made his pro-friendship Cuba policy the subject of his weekly newsletter.
While Paul is not a front runner--he recently nabbed 5% of the vote and 6th place in a CNN poll of Republican candidates--his campaign has drawn a fair share of attention due to its grassroots Internet efforts and for the $4.2 million he raised in one day last week, breaking Mitt Romney's one-day fundraising record. Paul will be in Cedar Rapids before heading to a college football tailgate in Iowa City, Iowa on Saturday. Next week, he'll take a page from the Democrats and travel Nevada.
CNN and the Nevada Democratic Party will host a debate in Las Vegas on Thursday, bringing a bunch of righteous candidates to Sin City. Everyone but Mike Gravel will be there, including Hillary, Chris Dodd and John Edwards. (Gravel didn't rake in enough cash to earn an invite, says CNN.)
Dennis Kucinich will be around town the day of the debate, including a lunch at Tipps Thai on Spring Mountain Road. Barack Obama is already touring southern Nevada, with stops in Boulder City and Pahrump today.
Thursday evening, candidates will duke it out at the Cox Pavilion at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, just a short drive from The Strip. Since the debate starts at 5, that should give everyone plenty of time to get over to see the late performance of KA by Cirque du Soleil at the MGM Grand.
While some Democratic presidential candidates have been discussing the US ban on travel to Cuba, a bunch of tourists are ignoring the talk and visiting the island. The trip may not be legal but that doesn't seem to bother the thousands of Americans--including Michael Moore--who risk big fines to check out Fidel's country.
In fact, one tourist says that's the point:
The fact that you're not supposed to be there, that was the top for me...You just don't know what Cuba will be like after Castro's gone.
The American Society of Travel Agents--a group that admittedly has an interest in more tourists--says millions of Americans would visit Cuba if restrictions were lifted. Would that ever happen? It might: Barack Obama says he wants to relax travel rules, and Chris Dodd says he'll end the US-Cuba embargo outright.
For the corazón of the Cuban exile in America, you can't get any closer than Miami, whose Pequeña Habana holds one of the highest concentrations of Cubans outside of the country in question. Maybe that's why Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd went there to announce his plan for re-opening diplomatic relations with Cuba.
Dodd has long been critical of the U.S. embargo on all things Cuban and would, if elected, seek to repeal sanctions and allow U.S. citizens--like Michael Moore--to travel between the two countries. As we reported earlier, Senator Barack Obama also supports repealing sanctions.
At this rate, we may soon be traveling to the island nation instead of just rewatching "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights." (Which wasn't even filmed in Cuba, btw.) All that said, Dodd is running left of the pack; the next visit to Miami may very well come from a pro-sanctions candidate.
