Cuba's government sends health care workers abroad as part of its foreign policy agenda.
As U.S. and Cuba officials wrap up their first high-level talks in decades, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro is leading a call for an end to the Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program.
The CMPP began in 2006 under President George Bush's administration, and makes it easier for Cuban doctors and health care professionals working overseas to defect to the U.S.
Cuba's government sends health care workers abroad as part of its foreign policy agenda. Around 30,000 Cuban medical professionals are currently dispatched overseas.
DeLauro and 13 members of Congress sent a letter this week to President Obama, applauding U.S. efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. They praise Cuban medical workers’ efforts overseas, calling contributions by the country’s doctors’ to containing the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa “undeniable”.
But they say the CMPP program is deeply unpopular throughout Latin America, and is seen as a “cynical attempt to weaken Cuba’s government.”
The lawmakers say Obama should end CMPP, and treat Cuban medical professionals who wish to emigrate, just like any other prospective immigrant under U.S. law.
