U.S. Denies Cuban Athletes Visas, Bans Travel From 19 Countries, More

After the violent attack in Boulder, Colorado, Trump is weaponizing the incident to target noncitizens and villainize them as terrorists

Photo by Kit (formerly ConvertKit) on Unsplash

A story you may have missed last week involved the United States denying Cuba’s national basketball team permission to travel to Puerto Rico, where the FIBA AmeriCup qualifiers were held. Cuba was forced to forfeit its first game after most of its players, coaches, and support personnel were denied visas to travel. The team earned a spot in the tournament after qualifying in Nicaragua earlier this year.

The story hit the newswires when the Cuban Olympic Committee (COC) denounced the U.S.’s actions last week in a press release, however, it was scantily reported on. The U.S. Embassy in Cuba also denied visas to the COC President and its Secretary General to attend the Pan American Sports Executive Committee meeting, held in Miami from May 13 to 15, and the Olympic Solidarity Forum for the National Olympic Committees of the Americas, which began days later in San Juan, Puerto Rico, according to the COC.

“The COC warns about the impact of this policy on Cuba's full participation in an Olympic cycle culminating with the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and requests the International Olympic Committee, Panam Sports, and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee to intervene to end politicized decisions that undermine Cuba's right to occupy its place on international sporting stages,” reads the COC press release.

They also allege that the U.S. denied visas for the COC Vice President and International Olympic Committee member María Caridad Colón Ruenes, preventing her from participating in the Pan American Sports Women in Sports Commission session on May 5 in Miami along with visa denials for 14 Cuban representatives scheduled to participate in the World Masters Indoor Athletics Championships, held in Gainesville, Florida, from March 23 to 30.

Watch this report by Belly of the Beast, which spoke to athletes in Cuba.

On Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio doubled down on denying visas to government officials who employ Cuban doctors, charging them with allegedly participating in human trafficking, a claim he had earlier backed down from after Caribbean leaders called him out to his face during his first trip to Latin America. Curiously, the recent restrictions only apply to Central American leaders and not leaders of Western countries who employ Cuban doctors.

Misrepresenting Data

Rubio’s action was followed by the Trump administration announcing a travel ban from 19 countries that include ten African countries (Burundi, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan and Togo), four Middle Eastern countries (Afghanistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, and Yemen), three Latin American countries (Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela), Myanmar, and Laos.

While the administration cites the rates of overstays per country listed in the ban, they’re ignoring a key data point: white people. Only one of the countries listed in Trump’s travel ban (Venezuela) makes the list of the top ten countries with visa overstays in the U.S. For example, between 2016 and 2022, 481,000 Canadians topped the list of visa overstays, according to a 2023 Congressional report.

“Generally, countries with high overstay rates have a low volume of travel to the United States, so a small number of overstays can still represent a large share of the country's expected departures,” reads the 2023 Congressional report. “In contrast, countries with a high number of overstays often have a high number of expected departures, so their overstay rate is low.”

This means that the percentages cited in Trump’s executive order targeting nonwhite migrants represent the smallest number of visa overstays when compared to the massive number of white Europeans and Canadians who overstay their visas. Similar to removing Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from thousands of Afghans and granting refugee status to white South Africans on the same day, the administration is making its blatant racism known.

That is most evident in the villainizing of myriad noncitizen communities for the actions of a few bad actors. It happened when they tried to tie the New Orleans domestic terrorist attack to immigration, and they’re doing it again by using the attack in Boulder, Colorado, to criminalize all noncitizens as terrorists. Trump made this abundantly clear in a video released from the White House, where he talked about how his administration doesn’t want these particular migrants.

Meanwhile, to add to all of this, on Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security issued waivers to build more border wall, not unlike those that former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued under former President Joe Biden. The waivers will allow the federal government to bypass environmental restrictions to construct the border wall.

“The Secretary’s waiver authority allows DHS to waive environmental laws–including the National Environmental Policy Act–to ensure the expeditious construction of physical barriers and roads, by minimizing the risk of administrative delays,” reads the press release.

The Trump administration’s racism could not be more evident.

No Denying It

With the Trump administration empowering various federal agencies alongside hundreds of local and state law enforcement agencies to conduct immigration related actions, and with Trump considering mobilizing 20,000 National Guard soldiers to assist in those actions, it appears the White House wants to take us to the brink of martial law without actually declaring it. The Trump administration is essentially creating a mob to target nonwhite noncitizens.

A mob that will undoubtedly claim they were just doing their jobs.

If there was any doubt about Trump’s blatant racism before (not sure that’s possible), let his words above relieve any doubt. Coupled with the dozens of racists, white nationalists, and Christian nationalists in the White House, I’m not sure MAGA can deny much anymore. The question is, do they care that they are openly allowing the federal government to blur the lines between federal law enforcement authority and their local and state police?

It doesn’t seem like it.

It’s also worth noting that the countries on Trump’s list are all countries the U.S. has a hand in destabilizing, whether directly or indirectly by funding disruptors who create chaos and pave the way for the U.S. to gain access to power structures and inevitably, their resources. That they’re targeting those countries that are nonwhite and being quiet about the countries with the biggest numbers of visa overstays says all you need to know about their motivations.

It’s blatant racism.

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Arturo is an independent journalist whose work can be found at Unicorn Riot, The Antagonist Magazine, Latino Rebels, and more. Arturo is also on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and Threads. To support his work, become a paid subscriber or donate via Venmo, PayPal, or Cash App.