Carlos Giménez says sanctions will prevent Cuba from selling doctors ‘like cattle to the highest bidder’

Carlos Giménez has a theory on Democrats’ silence on Cuba. Image via Twitter.

Carlos Giménez, America’s only Cuban-born Congressman, is a big fan of new sanctions Secretary of State Marco Rubio just announced.

“I applaud President (Donald) Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for combatting the murderous dictatorship in Communist Cuba, (which) must be held accountable for its countless crimes against humanity including human trafficking and forced labor,” Giménez said in a statement.

“We know Cuban doctors are sold like cattle to the highest bidder and subjected to inhospitable, slave-like conditions — and this new (State Department) policy is a step in the right direction to prevent the regime in Havana from profiting from their perverse modern-day slavery scheme. I look forward to continuing working with Secretary Rubio and President Trump to enforce a policy that isolates the Castro regime and assists the Cuban people in their struggle for freedom.”

Rubio confirmed new restrictions on Cuban officials involved in labor-export programs that send medical care from the island nation to other countries, including U.S. adversaries. But the Cuban-born and -trained doctors sent abroad frequently work under inhumane treatment, low or withheld wages, oppressive conditions and restrictive agreements that generate income for the Cuban regime, which benefits from these agreements diplomatically.

Former President Joe Biden’s administration imposed sanctions on third parties in other countries that help coordinate Cuban work brigades.

The new sanctions, Rubio said Tuesday, target “current or former Cuban government officials, and other individuals, including foreign government officials, who are believed to be responsible for, or involved in, the Cuban labor export program, particularly Cuba’s overseas medical missions.”

The immediate family members of those sanctioned may also be penalized with visa restrictions.

The announcement from Rubio — who made history as the first Cuban American Florida House Speaker, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State — comes just over a month after Trump reversed an unpopular decision Biden made in mid-January to remove Cuba as a federally recognized state sponsor of terrorism.

Giménez is among the strictest Cuba hawks in Washington alongside Rubio and fellow Republican U.S. Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart and María Elvira Salazar. Last year, he led an inquiry into a much-criticized tour Cuban officials took of security areas at Miami International Airport.

In late January, Giménez joined the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institute. He said he’d work to ensure that “Hispanic, Cuban American, and Cuban exile experiences are accurately portrayed and represented in the Smithsonian Institute’s collection.”

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Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics contributed to this report.