MIAMI — Damir Ortiz, a 10-year-old with leukemia and a rare genetic disease that has caused a tumor in his left eye, was medevaced Wednesday from Cuba to the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, after overcoming bureaucratic obstacles and the reluctance of the Cuban government.

Last month, 79-year-old Martha Beatriz Roque, a prominent dissident and former political prisoner who received the International Women of Courage Award from the U.S. State Department in absentia last year, was finally allowed to come to Miami by Cuban authorities because she needed medical treatment after falling gravely ill.

“Support for the Cuban people” through cooperation in such humanitarian cases has been a central tenet of U.S. policy under several administrations. Under current versions of a Trump administration plan to ban Cubans from entering the United States, people like Ortiz and Roque would have never made it to Miami — likely dying on the Communist-run island.

The immigration restrictions now on the table would impose an absolute ban on entry by Cuba and Venezuelan nationals, regardless of what country they live in, with no exceptions for the elderly, the sick or harassed dissidents, sources familiar with ongoing discussions told the Miami Herald — trapping them in dictatorships recently labeled by Secretary of State Marco Rubio as “enemies of humanity.”

The plan — still being crafted by Stephen Miller, a key adviser to President Donald Trump and architect of his mass deportation plan — would also extend similar but slightly less harsh restrictions on Haitian nationals and, sources say, potentially extend to other Caribbean nations.

Before Trump took office, his team had approached several Caribbean governments to accept undocumented migrants from the U.S. whose nations refused to allow them to be returned. Travel bans on those island nations potentially could be used as bargaining chips in negotiations to accept deportees.

The extreme travel ban policies emerging from the White House have been largely kept from Congress so far but will likely pose a major dilemma for many South Florida politicians, whose communities have large populations of constituents with deep ties to the targeted counties.

The plan for an extended travel ban is one of several initiatives sparked by a presidential executive order that mandates the State Department and other federal agencies to come up with a list of “countries throughout the world for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries.”

The new plan is likely being crafted based on a previous ban version upheld by the Supreme Court, experts say. While the administration appears to want to avoid past legal mistakes in its previous versions during Trump’s first mandate, court challenges are still expected. Cubans and Venezuelans, in particular, might sue due to the absence of waivers, arguing that their foreign relatives are suffering the consequences of the ban, said David Weinstein, a former Miami-Dade state and federal prosecutor.

“The question will be who’s on the list. Are there exceptions in this new executive order for categories of foreign nationals? And is there a waiver program?” Weinstein said.

In previous versions enacted during the first Trump administration, a procedure to request waivers was put in place — even if few were granted. The working version would sharply narrow options to appeal.

The sources said Cubans or Venezuelans living in third countries with a second citizenship might avoid the prohibition. Haitian nationals, already living in a country torn apart by gang violence, political turmoil and one of the worst humanitarian crises in the region, might be able to petition for entry, but the overwhelming majority would be prevented from entering regardless of where they live.

The U.S. is the biggest funder of the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission, which the current administration has agreed to continue providing funds to until at least September to help Haiti’s police fight deadly gangs. The ban would certainly raise questions about U.S. policy going forward that could potentially create a pressure valve prompting Haitians to take to the sea as they have done during past crises.

No timeline has been given for the rollout of the travel restriction plan but it is expected soon, several sources have told the Miami Herald after being alerted to discussions that are even being kept from members of Congress.

A political pressure point?

The bans, at least as sources have outlined them to date, will directly affect many in South Florida with relatives in the targeted countries. That will place members of the Miami congressional delegation, the Cuban American Republicans Mario Díaz-Balart, María Elvira Salazar and Carlos Giménez, in a difficult position, having to oppose a Trump administration with little tolerance for critics or support a policy that will hurt many in the community they represent, said Eduardo Gamarra, a political science professor at Florida International University.

While Florida has become a solid Republican state, and the administration might discount the risks of enacting its immigration agenda, he said those issues might have an electoral effect in the coming midterms.

“I think that concern does exist,” Gamarra said. “It also depends on who the Democrats nominate as their candidate and how the campaigns are conducted. But going back to that old adage that all politics is local, issues like these, because they’re so personal, can clearly have an electoral impact.”

Salazar is the chair of the House’s Western Hemisphere foreign affairs subcommittee. But her office and Gimenez’s both said they had no information about the travel ban discussions, highlighting how secretively the plan’s authors have been working so far. Díaz-Balart’s office did not immediately reply to a comment request.

Other immigration initiatives have already caused concern in South Florida, including the cancellation of a popular humanitarian parole program created by the Biden administration and temporary deportation protections for Venezuelans. In a poll with Cuban Americans in South Florida conducted by Florida International University last year, the humanitarian parole program, benefiting Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, received strong support crossing party lines, with 72% of respondents expressing approval.

The FIU polls, conducted every two years, have consistently shown that most Cuban Americans in South Florida support family reunification, travel and other policies to help relatives on the island, at the same time they expressed support for sanctions on the Cuban government.

Gamarra said that even if most Cuban Americans and many Venezuelans are Trump supporters, they might view the administration’s policies differently if the issue becomes personal.

“We are seeing this in surveys and focus groups,” Gamarra said. “When we ask, are you in favor of mass deportation? The answer yes. What if your cousin or brother is being deported? Then they say no. There’s that differentiation. They support the larger policy, but when it’s personal, they no longer want to support that policy.”

“When policies become personal, you are likely going to see a wave of opposition, like we are seeing with the removal of TPS for Venezuelans,” he added.

Migration accords with Cuba in limbo?

A travel ban suspending all visa issuance for Cubans could also undermine a Trump administration goal to have Havana continue to accept Cuban deportees.

Because it would also violate the U.S.-Cuba Migration Accords, a series of bilateral agreements that date back to 1984, the ban will make it less likely for Cuban authorities to cooperate. Under the accords, the U.S. government committed to issue 20,000 travel documents annually (visas or parole) for Cubans to emigrate legally to the United States. The first Trump administration only met that threshold in 2017.

U.S. immigration authorities have considered Cuba a “recalcitrant” country that does not accept all the nationals they want to deport. On Wednesday evening, vice foreign minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío said his government was “open” to accepting deportees but under the terms of the current accords.

“We find it absurd and unfair that the United States is threatening to deport this large number of Cubans en masse, especially when there are migration agreements that have worked well in the past,” he said.

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