The State Department’s decision to allow a retired high-ranking Cuban Communist Party official to immigrate to the U.S. has caused controversy among members of congress and the Cuban American community in South Florida. Despite a federal law prohibiting the entry of communist party officials, Manuel Menendez Castellanos, a former member of the Cuban Communist Party’s Central Committee, was granted entry into the U.S. under the Biden-Harris administration’s family reunification policy.
When asked by Miami’s Local 10 News for an explanation how a communist party official could be granted asylum in the U.S., the State Department refused to provide an answer:
The U.S. State Department did not address the concerns that several outraged lawmakers in South Florida had about a “Cuban communist party operative” who was legally allowed to be in the United States.
The lawmakers, including four Cuban Americans, were reacting to a Marti Noticias report showing Manuel Menendez Castellanos at Miami International Airport. They signed an Aug. 21 letter addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
On Linkedin, Mendendez Castellano identifies as a “Senior Investment Consultant.” The U.S. lawmakers described him as “a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, the Central Workers’ Union in 1972, was First Secretary of the Communist Party in Cienfuegos (1993 and 2003), and a deputy in the National Assembly for years, as well as a member of Fidel Castro’s notorious “coordination and support team.
The U.S. State Department Press Office sent an e-mail to Local 10 News Reporter Liane Morejon early Saturday morning explaining why the agency could not comment on the matter.
“Visa records are confidential under U.S. law; therefore, we cannot comment on individual cases,” the spokesperson wrote.
The State Department’s refusal to explain its decision to violate federal law and allow a communist party official to enter the U.S. is just another example of the Biden-Harris administration’s disastrous immigration policy.
Translation: “We don’t care if those people don’t like this, since they’re not going to vote Dem in any case. Therefore, they can go pound sand. Have a nice day.”