Newswise — Maria Cristina Garcia, an expert on immigration reform and professor of history at Cornell University, says the administration must take more steps – like allowing the use of U.S.-based credit cards and withdrawals from ATMs – to facilitate travel to Cuba.
Biography: www.history.arts.cornell.edu/faculty-department-garcia.php
Garcia says: “The Obama administration’s announcement that it will allow U.S. citizens to engage in ‘people to people’ educational tours on their own, without joining an established – and expensive – organized tour, is a step in the right direction. However, travel to Cuba will still not be easy.
“One of the major challenges Americans face while traveling in Cuba is the inability to use U.S.-based credit cards to reserve hotels, purchase goods, and draw cash from ATMs. If the goal is to normalize relations as fully as possible, the administration must take more steps to facilitate travel.
“The true beneficiaries of today’s announcement are Cubans who seek to work in the United States – especially baseball players and performers – who are now allowed to earn salaries in the United States without having to immigrate.”
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