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Florida Travel Agents Win Delay Of Cuba Trips Law

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The New York Times

Published: July 27, 2008

MIAMI - Teresa Aral, a travel agent in South Florida, was relieved after learning she did not have to pay the state a quarter of a million dollars to keep booking trips to Cuba.

For now, at least.

Aral and 15 other agents who provide charter flights to Cuba filed a lawsuit in Miami against the state of Florida, challenging a new law requiring them to post a one-time $250,000 bond and disclose the names of clients in order to continue their business with Cuba.

But this month, a federal judge temporarily lifted the measure while he considered its legality.

"I'm very grateful that at least the judicial branch of government here is still working," Aral said after the ruling.

Cuban-Americans are allowed to visit the island every three years, and those going to Cuba are required to obtain visas through the federal government.

Despite the recent ruling, the legal battle between travel agents and Florida lawmakers over the cost of doing business with the Raul Castro government, which controls all aspects of commercial air travel into Cuba, is far from over.

Before the measure was signed into law in June by Gov. Charlie Crist, all travel agencies, including those providing trips to Cuba, were required to pay the state a one-time $25,000 bond.

State Rep. David Rivera, a Republican and Cuban-American who sponsored the bill, says the travel agents should post the larger bond to cover the cost of "reasonable oversight" of those doing business with a "terrorist government."

Rivera said the law was an "anti-terrorism bill" that requires any Florida travel agent who provides direct flights to any country on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism to pay the bond.

Because there are no direct flights from Miami to any other countries on the list - such as Sudan, Syria or Iran - critics say the law was designed to regulate travel to Cuba.

Rivera said the bond, which would be put into escrow, would be used to investigate any travel agency accused of violating laws regulating travel to Cuba, though the legislation does not specify what constitutes a violation.

Rivera said the law was designed to protect customers from price gouging and "unscrupulous travel agents."

"Every business in Florida is regulated," Rivera said after the July 1 decision by the judge, Alan S. Gold of U.S. District Court. "So travel agents that deal with terrorist governments don't deserve an exemption from the regulations."

The case is to return to court in September.

Ira Kurzban, a lawyer for the travel agents who brought the lawsuit, said the law was more about Florida politicking over the Cuba issue than protecting consumers.

"This law was conceived for no reason other than to placate a small group of Cuban-Americans out of step with the Cuban community," said Kurzban, who argues that the law is unconstitutional and "attempts to embroil the state of Florida in foreign policy."

Some legal experts agree, saying the law oversteps the bounds of state authority by regulating international travel.

"States simply can't decide they want to have their own foreign policy," said Bernard H. Oxman, a professor of international law at the University of Miami.

Erik Miller, a lawyer for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which regulates state travel agencies, said at the court hearing that the law "does not invade the province of federal status."

"There's not interference with foreign affairs," he said. "It only regulates in-state transactions."

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