i just wanted to respect what i knew you and ileana's family has been through. that was all. >> and i thank you for your kind statements. i took it as a kind statement. i want to make sure of that. but i'm just saying that the issue of human rights and the consistency on that is important. when we look at the folks that are here today -- i mentioned south africa. in front of us today are the mandelas, the hobbles. the future leaders of the free and democratic cuba. when folks talk about cuba they sometimes confuse the regime with cuba. no. this is cuba in front of us today. those who have spent years in prison. is 17 years in prison. ask him about the conditions by ask them about how well the cuban people are treated. ask ms. fonseca. go to the youtube and look at her videos. to find out how respected and how well the people who just dare speak out for freedom are treated. ask berta soler about what happens when you just walk peacefully with a flower in your hand going to church and asking for freedom of their relatives. ask her how the cuban people are treated.

i say that, 2012 ileana ros-lehtinen and i had a hearing and we heard from a doctor who spent 11 years in prison and the same type of scenarios were pointed out, even the 53 were free three were rearrested. we understand -- and maybe you can verify that, that some 100 to 200 additional prisoners arrested in the last few weeks, is that true or is that not? some comments have been made that icrc may get to go to cuba. that's not the issue. they need to go to the prison. and the last time one was able to negotiate that when he walked plank on behalf of -- in the 1990's, and i was with him in geneva at the human rights commission when he secured there, representatives went into the prison, interviewed people and everybody, including family members, were severely retaliated against. the icrc has to have unfettered access to the prisons. meeting with fidel castro or anybody under him just doesn't cut it. i would like to go again. i have tried repeatedly. madam secretary, maybe you can help facilitate that. i want to go to the prison and lead a delegation to the prison. i've been to prisons i

i just wanted to respect what i knew you and ileana's family has been there. that was all. >> and i thank you for your kind statements. i took it as a kind statement. i want to make sure of that. but i'm just saying that the issue of human rights and the consistency on that is important. when we look at the folks that are here today -- i mentioned south africa. in front of us today are the mend mandelas, the hobbles. the future leaders of the free and democratic cuba. when folks talk about cuba they sometimes confuse the regime with cuba. no. this is cube in front of us today. those who have spent years in prison. ask him about the conditions by the way of the prince. ask them about how well the cuban people are treated. ask ms. fonseca. go to the youtube and look at her videos. ask berta soler about what happens when you just walk peacefully with a flower in your hand going to church and asking for freedom of their relatives. ask her how the cuban people are treated. so at a time when during the state of the union our president spoke about cuba -- and by the

la congresista ileana ros- lehtinen dijo que aunque no apoya la separacin de familias el fallo era deperarse. s/ ilena ros-lehtinen (r-fl) "esa decisión del juez es algo que no nos debe tomar por sorpresa el mismo presidente dijo más de 22 veces que yo no tengo los poderes para parar las deportaciones'" otros congresistas republicanos se han expresado desde sus distritos en comunicados escritos. coinciden en que este fallo reafirma que el presidente est actuando fuera del marco de la ley. s/ randy serrano @randytelemundo queda por verse qué pasa una vez el departamento de justicia apele la decisión. mientras tanto los activistas que aseguran se trata de un retraso temporal dicen seguirán preparando a personas indocumentadas para llevar a cabo los trámites cesar --mientras que en un comunicado oficial publicado en la pagina web de "ucis" el secretario del departamento de seguridad nacional take vo "jeh johnson" manifest su desacuerdo con la decisin del juez "hanen" de bloquear la extension de la accion diferida. --en el comunicado agrega que maÑana no se comenzarn a aceptar las solicit

as ileana ros-lehtinen mentioned there so much showcasing going on but the ability to discern the real facts when others bear witness that is not the case is very large. ms. fonseca. [speaking spanish] >> translator: yes i have something to say. i remember in 1990 i don't have a precise i don't have a precise number. [speaking spanish] >> translator: my youngest son was born prematurely. [speaking spanish] >> translator: when he was born i saw several children however i know the hospital never reported those death nationally or internationally. [speaking spanish] >> translator: i didn't like to listen to fidel castro speeches but sometimes i have to. [speaking spanish] >> translator: fidel castor is the enemy and fidel castro is the enemy of cuba. [speaking spanish] >> translator: i listened to the dictator's speech that year. [speaking spanish] >> translator: and he said i don't know if the specifics were pretty referred to the child mortality rate in cuba being very low. [speaking spanish] >> translator: but having my son i had been into hospitals and i can assure you many more child

as ileana mentioned earlier, there is so much showcasing going on but the ability to discern the real facts when others bear witness that that's not the face is very large. miss fonseca? >> translator: yes i have something to say. i remember that in 1990 i don't have a precise amount -- i my youngest son was born prematurely. and where he was born, i saw several children die. however, however, i know that the hospital never reported those deaths and it was not known nationally or internationally. i didn't like to listen to fedle castro's speeches but sometimes i had to. because when he tell what the enemy says, and fidel castro is the enemy. and fidel castro is the enemy of cuba. i listened to the dictator's speech that year. he said -- he said that i don't know what the statistic was, but he referred to the child mortality rate in cuba being very low. but haven't had the difficult situation with my son, i had been in two hospitals. and i can assure you that many more children have died. but also -- i never received adequate medical assistance. in order to help me in child birth. in c

. >> we go now to ileana ros-lehtinen. >> thank you so much, mr. chairman. as we know, the u.s. has been negotiating in secret with this sadistic dictatorship for now 20 months because it's still secret. for 18 of those months, the white house negotiated in supersecret to trade three convicted spies for an intersent american. even if you say that was not a swap that's just so disingenuous. assistant secretary jacobson, this week in the senate, just yesterday, you testified, quote, this policy is not based on the castro regime changing. you said more or less that now. we have no illusions over that. end quote. let me get this straight. we are tell graphing to the castro -- telegraphing to the castro regime ahead of time it doesn't have to change. we have no illusions that it's going to change. so are we going to get further concessions from this administration? what is the point of negotiations if you say we are negotiating, we have no illusions, let's see where this leads us. media have been reporting just this week that arrests in cuba for last month, in january decreased to on

some gop leaders like congressman peter king congresswoman ileana ros-lehtinen and marco rubio shea ahowdown with the democrats and the white house is not worth having and should pass a clean bill and others like senator ted cruz say republicans should stick to their principles and not back down. thank you so much for coming on. republican senator ted cruz said this if republicans hold firm by pushing for a bill that undo president obama's executive order on immigration and democrats don't support such a bill the democrats will be blamed for the dhs shutdown. could this backfire for democrats? >> you know, i find that pretty hard to believe. there's a lot of factors that are going against republicans who don't want to pass a clean dhs funding bill on this. the republican leadership isn't really into it. you mentioned those folks but actually mitch mcconnell, john boehner and kevin mccarthy the republican leadership isn't into this fight. the media is going to blame republicans. >> what else is new? >> exactly. i think they really do believe the republicans shut down government and pre

ill ileana and her staff we went time and again asking them to look at the deplorable human rights in cuba. when i met him he was able to get the u.n. to look at pass resolution condemning the deplorable situation in cuba and to deploy a team to go to the prisons and investigate these terrible abuse of human rights. there were promises made by fidel castro that there would be no retaliation against those who spoke in prison and the family members and friends who came forward to bear witness to a terrible truth and set of truths. everybody was retaliated against. the people in the prisons as well as their families and regrettably the u.n. was unable, perhaps unwilling but certainly unable to do anything to stop that retaliation. i have pushed for years to go to cuba. i have been denied a visa for two decks or so. i want to go to the prisons. of course i'd meet with fidel if i was able. we can't get that visa. both frank wolf and i tried a number of times and it got so bat that at one point fidel kas castro said we were provocateur provocateurs. i want to meet with the dissidents in the

ingle i am going to yield my remaining time to ileana ros-lehtinen. the chairman emeritus of this committee. fled cuba as a refugee at age 8 and her years of work on this committee have been marked by a tireless commitment to freedom and democracy for people around the world. >> thank you so much, mr. chairman. i strongly second your grave concerns about the way that foreign policy is being run from the white house, by secretly negotiateing with the castro regime while keeping the congress the american people even our own diplomats in the dark. this foreign policy decision is in line with the president's other examples of executive overreach and bypassing consultations with congress, just like the taliban 5 trade with berg dal, the president has established a dangerous precedence that the united states does in fact negotiate with terrorists. ever since the secret negotiations began of june 2013 this is what the regime has been doing since day one of the talks as the u.s. establishes diplomatic relations. just a few examples. july 15 2013, a north kore

ingle i am going to yield my remaining time to ileana ros-lehtinen. the chairman emeritus of this committee. she fled committee -- cuba as a refugee in age eight and her years of work has been marked by a tireless commitment to freedom and democracy for people around the world. >> thank you so much and i strongly second your grave concerns about the way that foreign policy is being run from the white house by secret negotiations with the castro regime while keeping congress, the american people, even our own diplomats in the dark. this decision is in line with the president's other examples of executive overreach and bypassing consultations with congress. just like the taliban and five trade, the president has established a dangerous precedent that the u.s. does negotiate with terrorists putting a target on every americans back and jeopardizing our national security. ever since the secret negotiations began in june 2013, this is what the castro regime has been doing since they won the talks. just a few examples. july 15, 2013. a north korean flag carg

i want to thank ileana ros-lehtinen and mario deezeblart. she has been such a leader for so long in raising the truth of what is going on in this ghoul ag island. i have much more to say but i will put the rest of it into the record. but i do want to thank our witnesses again and i look forward to hearing --. >> mr. chairman, i just want to take a brief moment before we turn to the very serious topic to respond to a statement from this subcommittee's last hearing that had troubling interpretations. while discussing your position on marriage equality you made comments that some understood as suggesting that lesbian, gay, bye sexual and transgender people do not have basic human rights. after exchanging letters to you i think it's important to note that while we have very different opinions, we both agree that unequivocally lgbt people have the same rights as all other people to live lives freeve free from violence and persecution. in your letter and your public statement you said that you "unequivocally oppose acts of violence against anyone

ingle i am going to yield my remaining time to ileana ros-lehtinen. the chairman emeritus of this committee. she fled committee -- cuba as a refugee in age eight and her years of work has been marked by a tireless commitment to freedom and democracy for people around the world. >> thank you so much and i strongly second your grave concerns about the way that foreign policy is being run from the white house by secret negotiations with the castro regime while keeping congress, the american people, even our own diplomats in the dark. this decision is in line with the president's other examples of executive overreach and bypassing consultations with congress. just like the taliban and five trade, the president has established a dangerous precedent that the u.s. does negotiate with terrorists, putting a target on every americans back and jeopardizing our national security. ever since the secret negotiations began in june 2013, this is what the castro regime has been doing since they won the talks. just a few examples. july 15, 2013. a north korean flag car

we go now to ileana russ-slaton of florida. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. the obama administration states that the training of syrian and moderate fighters is a large part of our strategy, but as of yet, we have not seen much evidence of this success. former ambassador to syria robert ford said in our subcommittee that the administration does not bother to coordinate or discuss strategy with syria's moderate fighters at all and won't strike isil near aleppo the moderate stronghold. if this force does eventually get up and running what should its mission be and who do you think will set and coordinate the strategy? will it be the united states or the coalition partners? can these forces fight against assad and isil simultaneously? and ambassador jeffrey, you testified that iran's policies almost drove iraq apart between 2012 and '14 and also that we won't be able to defeat isil over the long term without a more forceful u.s. policy toward the assad regime. what can you tell us about iran's goal and the activities in iraq and the region, and how does this imp

dictatorship but i do question if i could on an issue in a way you'll to my good friend and colleague, ileanatinen. i've been working come as a leader in the area of combating human trafficking. no prime author. it is our landmark law to combat modern-day slavery. the state department -- they put an annual listing of countries using what we contain in the law called minimum standards. the worst designation is tier three. cuba again is a tier three country, and egregious violator of trafficking with full complicity of the castro brothers and the rest of the government making money hand over fist by forcible prostitution, and by child prostitution. in 2004 frank calzone had documentation and was working the human rights commission in geneva. he had documentation of the complicity of this dictatorship with child prostitution and child explication. he was knocked out cold, hit in the face by cuba and so-called diplomats, thugs. freedom house came to defense and and made a very strong statement against it because he was bearing witness to the ugly truth of child prostitution. and again the state d