Cuban delegation visit to Miami International Airport causes uproar among local officials

A Cuban government delegation toured Transportation Security Administration facilities at Miami International Airport on Monday as part of ongoing law-enforcement cooperation between the two countries, raising concerns from local politicians who said access to “sensitive” areas should not be granted to U.S. adversaries.

Ralph Cutié, the Miami-Dade County Aviation Department director, said the Cuban delegation spent five hours at MIA on Monday. He said they were shown two areas in the airport: a security checkpoint that screens thousands of passengers daily, and a baggage-screen area that’s not open to the public but has been shown to visitors, including members of the media, following a clearance process.

“We’ve provided tours in the past,” he said. “But it has to be vetted.”

Cutié said federal authorities did not notify the county-run Aviation Department, which operates MIA, about the visit from a Cuban delegation to the facility. “Nobody knew,” he said.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the TSA, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The visit, which coincided with the anniversary of Cuba’s independence day, caused an uproar among local politicians from both parties. But a State Department spokesperson said similar visits by Cuban officials have happened under previous administrations, including when Donald Trump was president.

“TSA has cooperated with Cuba on civil aviation security for many years and has facilitated multiple such visits over the years,” the spokesperson said. “TSA has conducted frequent airport assessments in Cuba as far back as 2003 and Cuba began sending occasional reciprocal visits to the United States in 2011, which continued through the Trump administration until today.”

The official said TSA members have inspected Cuban airports to certify their ability to host flights to the United States. The “occasional reciprocal visits by the Cuban transportation ministry to U.S. airports” intend to discuss best practices, the official added.

“Aviation security is clearly in the national interest,” the spokesperson said. “Given Cuba’s proximity and the existence of direct flights to and from our countries, U.S. and Cuban authorities must collaborate while each working to ensure the safety and security of travelers at airports. As we have noted repeatedly, we will engage with the Cuban government when it is in the U.S. national interest to do so.

The spokesperson said TSA and the State Department coordinate these visits but did not say if Cuban officials have previously toured MIA facilities.

A Cuban government official also said the visits have happened before.

“It is nothing new,” said Abel Derivet, the spokesperson for the Cuban embassy in Washington. “This visit is part of the historical bilateral cooperation between the Civil Aviation Institute of Cuba and the TSA on aviation safety matters.”

Derivet said TSA officials have also regularly toured Cuban airports.

According to the MIA flights tracker, 10 flights were expected to arrive from Cuba on Tuesday afternoon.

Cuba does not publish the number of Cuban Americans traveling from the United States to the island. But Cuba’s official statistics agency said 358,481 Cubans living abroad traveled to the country in 2023. Most of them are believed to have traveled from Miami. That number does not include Cuban Americans who were born in the United States and entered with their American passports. The agency said Cuba received 159,032 American visitors in 2023.

A local protest

In Miami, the visit elicited strong reactions from local officials and members of Congress.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who is seeking reelection this year, said she was “shocked” to learn that a Cuban government delegation was invited to visit the airport’s TSA facilities.

The mayor said she asked Homeland Security to include county officials in future discussions regarding granting foreign officials access to the airport.

“Miami-Dade County stands firmly with the Cuban people here in our community and on the island as they continue to fight to bring freedom to Cuba, and we are committed to ensuring the safety of our community and all those who travel through MIA,” Levine Cava’s statement said.

Miami-Dade County Chief of Public Safety James Reyes said the decision to invite the Cuban delegation was “offensive” and “done unilaterally by TSA and without any knowledge of County officials. The shocking move, on the day Cubans celebrate Cuban Independence Day, must never happen again.”

In an election year, the visit gave an opportunity for Florida Republicans, who favor tough sanctions on the island’s communist government, to slam the Biden administration.

Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio said on X: “Only under the Biden administration would they allow a terrorist regime into our secure facilities at one of the busiest airports in America.”

Republican U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez said he would use his seat as chairman of the House Homeland Security subcommittee on transportation and maritime security to hold the Biden administration “accountable for its shameful & dangerous decision” to grant Cuban officials access “ to “sensitive TSA facilities” at MIA.

Last year, a similar visit by a delegation from the Cuban Border Guard that was supposed to tour U.S. ports was cut short after Rubio, Giménez and other members of Congress complained about its implications for national security. But Biden administration officials have said the U.S. advances its national interests when establishing ways to cooperate with Cuban authorities, especially on law enforcement and migration issues.

Commissioners weigh in

The incident also upended the agenda of Tuesday’s meeting of the Miami-Dade County Commission, which oversees MIA.

Commissioners took a break from the regular schedule to unanimously approve a last-minute resolution condemning both the tour and the Biden administration’s decision earlier in the month to remove Cuba from a list of countries not fully cooperating with counter-terrorism efforts.

“This is completely ridiculous and unacceptable,” Vice Chair Anthony Rodriguez said after introducing the resolution.

Several commissioners said they were convinced the Cuban government picked May 20 as a particularly offensive day to tour one of the largest government facilities in Miami-Dade, the heart of America’s Cuban exile community.

“They clearly played the TSA administration,” said Commissioner Kevin Cabrera, one of five Cuban-Americans on the 13-member commission. “They clearly played the State Department and all of these folks. They have no idea. They’re asleep at the wheel.”

Cutié, the Aviation Department director, told commissioners the county had requested an apology from the Biden administration.

“As a Cuban-American and a native Miamian,” he told commissioners, “I’m appalled that this took place.”

Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins, who is Jamaican-American, said she wanted details on how the federal government allowed the visit to take place. “I want to know who green-lighted this,” she said. “I want names.”

Commissioner Raquel Regalado, who is also Cuban-American, said she assumes the decision was intentional to keep Miami-Dade’s government in the dark about the visit.

“I don’t think they forgot to tell you. I think they didn’t tell you,” she said to Cutié. “Because they knew you would lose your mind.”

Cuba on the list of states sponsoring terrorism

The visit to MIA, first reported by Miami Spanish-language newspaper Diario Las Américas, happened just days after the State Department removed Cuba from its list of countries that do not “cooperate fully” with the United States on counterterrorism. A State Department spokesperson said some reasons for designating the Cuban government last year were no longer “appropriate” and that the two countries had resumed law enforcement cooperation in 2023, “including on counterterrorism.”

Several members of Congress from Miami expressed concern that the removal was a first step toward eliminating Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, which carries greater financial restrictions.

The Center for Engagement and Advocacy in the Americas, which organized a recent trip to Cuba by members of the progressive congressional caucus, praised the removal as “an important step towards normalizing bilateral relations.”

The Washington-based organization urged the Biden administration to also eliminate Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, a designation that “is unwarranted and hinders the delivery of humanitarian aid, and obstructs independent Cuban entrepreneurs and civil society groups from accessing international banking and funding, worsening economic hardship.”

Cuba has rejected its inclusion on the list, denying it supports terrorism.