MIAMI, United States. – The governments of Cuba and the United States concluded this Wednesday in Havana their semiannual round of migration talks, the last held under the presidency of Democrat Joe Biden and before the return of the Republican donald trump to the White House on January 20.
This mechanism — which resumed in 2022 between Havana and Washington — is stipulated to take place every six months alternately between both countries.
The meeting was headed by the vice chancellor of the Cuban regime, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, and the deputy undersecretary of the United States Department of State, Eric Jacobstein. According to the Island official, the dialogue was “constructive” and “frank.” “We attach great importance to this type of exchange and the cooperation that should result,” Fernández de Cossío assured journalists, according to a report from the AP agency.
During the meeting, the Cuban side reiterated its willingness to comply with current immigration agreements and expressed its concern about human trafficking and the “aggressive” treatment that – it stated – some of its citizens receive in US airports. Likewise, Fernández de Cossío requested the reestablishment of the issuance of non-immigrant visas at the US Consulate in Havana, which are currently processed in third countries, mainly in Guyana.
In the social network X, Fernández de Cossío he complained that “the persistence of the economic blockade, designed to depress the standard of living of Cubans, and the policy of privileging the entry of Cubans who migrate by any means, constitute the fundamental contradiction with the bilateral migration agreements [entre] Cuba and the USA.”
The historic Cuban Adjustment Law, in force since the 1960s, continues to be a point of controversy, since the Cuban regime considers it an incentive to irregular departures. However, in order for Cuban migrants to apply for this law, they need to enter US territory legally.
This Wednesday’s round was the fifth since these talks restarted, after a standstill during the previous Trump administration, which imposed more than 200 sanctions against the island’s regime.
During his press conference, Fernández de Cossío said that “it is not realistic to think that a mass deportation will occur” from the United States to Cuba. “In the dialogue [de este miércoles] There was no talk of mass deportations,” said the Cuban vice chancellor.
