DeLauro, Lee Lead 14 Members of Congress in Calling on President Obama to End Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program

WASHINGTON, DC—Representatives Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Barbara Lee (D-CA) today led 14 members of Congress in calling on President Obama to end the Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program (CMPP).

Cuba’s government has been sending health care workers abroad for decades as part of their foreign policy agenda. The CMPP began in 2006 under President George Bush’s administration and makes the process easier for doctors and other health care professionals who are working overseas to defect to the United States. Around 30,000 Cuban medical professionals are currently dispatched to hard-to-reach areas, developing nations and countries in crisis for humanitarian aid.

“The CMPP, which seeks to facilitate defections by Cuban medical professionals serving overseas to the United States, undermines our interests and weakens the ability of the international community to respond to critical health and humanitarian crises,” they wrote to President Obama. “Since the 1960s, Cuban medical professionals have been an invaluable resource for millions around the world who otherwise would have no access to medical care, and their contributions to containing the current Ebola outbreak are undeniable.

“Instead, this program exacerbates tensions between the U.S. and Cuba and undermines medical assistance from Cuba to poor countries,” they continued. “We welcome the immigration of Cuban nationals to the U.S., but not through a program that impedes the delivery of healthcare to the poor and which does not appear to advance U.S. domestic or international interests.”

The letter can be read in its entirety here. In addition to DeLauro and Lee, it was signed by Democratic Representatives Charles Rangel, James McGovern, Jim McDermott, Sam Farr, Betty McCollum, Jan Schakowsky, Steve Cohen, Jared Polis, Mike Honda, Chellie Pingree and Emanuel Cleaver, and Delegate Eleanor Holmes

DeLauro and Lee have both made multiple trips to Cubs and are longtime proponents of ending the current trade embargo. Lee is chair, and DeLauro a member of, the bipartisan Cuban Working Group.


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