The Associated Press
11:54 AM EST, March 7, 2008
Burlington, Vt. - A group of Cuban-Americans living in Vermont is suing
the federal government over its restrictions on traveling to Cuba to
visit family.
Four Vermonters filed a lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in
Burlington, claiming travel restrictions on Cuban-Americans violate
their civil rights.
Between 1996 and 2004, Cuban Americans could visit their homeland once a
year to see family without getting approval from the U.S. government.
But in 2004, the Bush administration made travel more restrictive,
limiting visits by Cuban-Americans to once every three years.
The lawsuit says the new rules make no exception for the death, illness,
birth or marriage of family members in Cuba.
In December, newly married Jared Carter and Yurisleidis Levya Mora, who
is a Cuban citizen and a legal permanent resident of the United States,
applied to the federal government to travel to Cuba to hold a wedding
ceremony for Mora's family, but were denied.
Mora was told she would have to wait three years after immigrating from
Cuba --until 2009 --to return. By that time, her aging grandparents
would not be able to attend their wedding, they said.
``The Supreme Court in numerous cases has upheld the right to family
privacy and familial relations,'' said Carter, a Vermont Law School
student who lives in Montpelier. ``We're saying if you want to visit
your mother who's in the hospital, you have a right to do it.''
The new restrictions also changed the definition of family members to
immediate family.
``This particular rule is unfair,'' Armando Vilaseca, who moved to the
U.S. in 1963, and wants to visit a terminally ill aunt, told The
Burlington Free Press for a story Thursday.
Mark Schneider, a New York attorney representing some of the plaintiffs,
said the government has not shown a justification for interfering with
families.
``There has to be some very, very important reason to restrict you from
visiting a relative,'' he said.
John Rankin, a spokesman for the Treasury Department, which must approve
the travel, would not comment on the lawsuit.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-0307cubatravel,0,2088203.story
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