There have been a couple of new stories this week about one of my favorite issues — the reaction to the Bush administration’s new policy toward Cuba among Cuban-Americans in South Florida.<\/p>\n
This was supposed to be an easy one for the Bush White House. In what appeared, at the time, to be a predictable election-year pander to a key group in the nation’s most important swing state, Bush announced harsh new restrictions<\/a> on American travel and remittances to Cuba. The idea was to show that the administration was “getting tough” with Castro, a move that should shore up support for Bush among Cuban-Americans in Florida, a huge constituency in a state that he barely “won” four years ago.<\/p>\n It hasn’t been working out the way Bush had hoped. Instead of a new round of cheers from a group that has sided with the GOP for generations, a backlash against the new policy has begun. Considering Bush’s already precarious support in Florida (27 electoral votes), it’s a debacle that the White House can hardly afford.<\/p>\n The problem is with Bush’s choice of targets. The administration’s news policies don’t focus on Castro’s regime directly; they affect aid to the Cubans themselves. It’s received a mixed reaction<\/a>, to put it mildly.<\/p>\n “It’s inhuman,” said Miriam Verdura, who was at the airport Wednesday morning seeing off friends who managed to book round-trip flights before the rules take effect and who were checking baggage with dozens of other travelers.<\/p>\n Because she last visited in 2002, Ms. Verdura will be ineligible to return until next year. <\/p>\n “Bush’s priority should first of all be to not keep Cuban families apart, because we suffer a lot,” she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In South Florida, the debate has divided the Cuban-American community. There will be political consequences for Bush.<\/p>\n A debate is raging about whether Mr. Bush went too far and whether the crackdown could in fact hurt his re-election prospects.<\/p>\n “It’s very important for people to vote against him because of this policy,” Ms. Aral said. “When we were helping check people into a flight last weekend, I said: ‘Are you registered to vote? Then you need to vote this November.’ Eighty percent said they would.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nAs I’ve mentioned before, most post-Mariel exiles send money back to relatives in Cuba. Under Bush’s new policies, those remittances, as well as travel to the island, will be severaly limited.<\/p>\n