The new law targets countries that use Cuban doctors in the forced labor program
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A new law authored by me and passed by Congress in February 2026 punishes countries that are involved in the human trafficking of Cuban doctors in the form of treatment for the Castro regime abroad. Similar legislation for fiscal year 2027 is expected to be voted on in the House soon.
For decades, the Cuban dictatorship has made billions by forcing its medical professionals to work in places no one wants to go, under terrible working conditions.
But the doctors themselves see very little of that money. The island’s government earns an estimated $4-8 billion a year from the program, and government officials keep 75-95% of the doctors’ fees.
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The U.S. State Department says the regime is taking away doctors’ passports, forcing their families to stay in Cuba as a force, giving the administration to look after them and punishing families if the doctor is disabled.
A photo shows Cuban embroidery on the white coat of a member of a Cuban medical team after their arrival at the Martinique-Aime-Cesaire airport in Le Lamentin, on the French Caribbean island of Martinique on June 26, 2020. (Photo by LIONEL CHAMOISEAU/AFP via Getty Images)
Since 2010, State Department reports have called the program exploitative. Accordingly, the State called this practice “human trafficking” or “forced labor” carried out by the Cuban government in 2020.
A new provision in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026 is aimed at countries that pay tyranny for these exploited medical workers. The State Department should now list every country or group that pays these workers and notify them that they are on the list.
If a country stays on the list for two consecutive years, it loses all US foreign aid. Foreign officials involved may be barred from entering the United States, and their funds and assets here may be frozen.
The law is already getting results. Guatemala, Jamaica, Guyana, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Paraguay and Honduras are reducing or completely eliminating their use of Cuban doctors.
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Others, like the Bahamas, are changing policies by trying to pay doctors directly instead of the government – something the dictator has previously rejected. As a result, the Trump administration implemented this law by imposing visa restrictions on officials from Brazil, Grenada and other African countries that are affiliated with the program.
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This law ensures accountability, something previous Democratic administrations were willing to ignore. It exposes those who benefit from the scheme and hits them with the real consequences of punishment: loss of US aid, travel bans and financial penalties. The law also greatly supports oppressed Cubans by protecting Cuban doctors from exploitation and abuse, while cutting off an important financial channel for the government.
