Republicans in Florida have taken offense after reports surfaced of the DHS taking Cuban officials on a tour of the Miami Airport. Even worse, they saw sensitive areas that are crucial in keeping the American people safe as they commute. 

Florida Republicans have now ganged up and are demanding a thorough investigation into this incident. They want to know exactly what those officials saw on the tour, which lasted all five hours. 

Reports claim that Cuban government officials got to enjoy a five-hour tour of the Miami International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the country. The tour covered vast areas of the airport, but lawmakers of the state may have been able to overlook that if those places, the officials got to see had not included areas considered sensitive. This included the baggage screening and security checkpoint area.

When news of what the federal officials did went live, it received a heated response from Florida Republicans, who were dismayed that the tour was even allowed to happen in the first place, and in their state no less. They are now presenting a united front and demanding answers, curious to know what purpose the tour served.

One face that seems to be leading the pack of disgruntled lawmakers is Representative Carlos Gimenez. The Florida Republican has been very vocal about what he thinks of the tour. He is incensed that the Cuban government, one that reportedly sponsors terrorism, got such an opportunity. 

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As far as Gimenez is concerned, the tour should never have been approved, but what is unthinkable to him is that they got to see the airport’s sensitive areas. To him, it is like a great big cat exposing its underbelly to other predators—something even cats know not to do. 

Gimenez also claimed the act was an affront to Cubans who had to flee their country to settle in Florida. After all, if the Cuban Communist Party were not so terrible, they would not have had to run in the first place. For the federal officials to give the people who gave them so much grief, a tour of TSA equipment and procedures at the airport is simply unacceptable. 

Another thing that has Gimenez throwing a fit is the fact that this tour did not just happen on a random day; it happened on May 20, the Cuban Independence Day, never mind that the people of Cuba have not really enjoyed that independence because they have been ruled by agents of the regime responsible for oppressing them for over six decades. 

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Many other Florida Republicans share Gimenez’s thoughts. They have sent a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and TSA Administrator David Pekoske demanding details of the tour. Gimenez spearheaded the effort, and Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott also participated. Representatives Mario Diaz-Balart and Maria Elvira Salazar were among those who signed it.

In their letter, Gimenez and the other Republicans drew attention to the fact that it is not the first time Cuban officials are getting a tour of important places. There was a tour of the U.S. Coast Guard headquarters in 2023, and a visit to Wilmington, North Carolina, also took place before that. 

The letter the Republicans wrote to the DHS and TSA highlighted how Cuban operatives have repeatedly accessed sensitive areas of the country under the Biden government, and now Congress must act to end that, especially since the Department of State has listed Cuba as an SSOT since 2021.

The TSA, in its response to the incensed lawmakers, seemingly implied that the tour happened because people take direct flights to Cuba from the airport. It also explained that the Cuban officials were not exposed to any sensitive technology, and everywhere they visited, they saw places civilians were allowed to see while in the airport. 

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It is not often that Democrats and Republicans agree on a topic, but that is what is happening, as some Democrats have expressed shock that the tour was allowed to happen. Representative Frederica Wilson, a Democrat in Florida, outrightly stated that Cuban officials should have no seat at the US government’s table. Other Democrats who share his sentiment include Democratic Miami-Dade County Mayor Danielle Levine Cava and Miami City Manager Emilio González. 

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