Govt. spending bill passage allows more visits to Cuba for holidays
By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ December 23, 2011 1:46PM
Watches and other items are on display as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations announced the seizure of more than 327,000 counterfeit items with a manufacturer's suggested retain price worth an estimated $76.8 million, at a news conference, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011, in Miami. They continue to track down those who are selling counterfeit and pirated products this holiday season. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
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MIAMI — Thousands of Cuban-Americans are flying to the island this week to celebrate the new year. These types of annual pilgrimages would have been sharply curtailed if two South Florida, GOP Cuban-American congressmen had succeeded in returning to the Bush-era limit of once every three years. The measure was tucked into the congressional spending bill. But Republican leaders jettisoned it last week in a last-minute compromise.
President Barack Obama allowed unlimited family visits by Cuban-Americans in 2009. Exact numbers are difficult to come by, but the Cuban government said earlier this year it expected about 500,000 U.S. visitors. The majority of them are Cuban-Americans. Cuban officials did not respond to requests for statistics from past years. They previously said there were nearly 300,000 visits from Cubans outside the island in 2009.
AP
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