{"id":8192,"date":"2023-04-12T21:29:02","date_gmt":"2023-04-12T21:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/u-s-cuban-officials-discuss\/"},"modified":"2023-04-12T21:31:51","modified_gmt":"2023-04-12T21:31:51","slug":"u-s-cuban-officials-discuss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/u-s-cuban-officials-discuss\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S., Cuban officials discuss migration as COVID border restrictions set to end"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Matt Spetalnick and Ted Hesson<\/p>\n<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) &#8211;     U.S. and Cuban officials discussed migration issues on Wednesday as the Biden administration braces for the end of COVID-era border restrictions that have blocked Cubans in recent months from crossing into the United States from Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>The high-level meeting in Washington followed one held in Havana in November and comes a year after the Democratic administration of U.S. President Joe Biden resumed migration talks after a long hiatus under former President Donald Trump, a Republican seeking reelection in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. State Department offered few details about the latest discussions, saying in a statement the talks &#8220;highlighted areas of successful cooperation on migration, while also identifying issues that have been obstacles.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>The head of the Cuban delegation, Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, said beforehand that &#8220;extreme and inhumane measures&#8221; have hurt Cuban livelihoods and spurred emigration, a reference to the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba and other sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>Asked about the accusation, a State Department official stressed that the embargo is enshrined in congressional law and includes exemptions for exports of food, medicine and other humanitarian goods heading to Cuba.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. embassy in Havana resumed full immigrant visa processing and consular services in January for the first time since 2017 in a bid to stem record numbers of Cubans trying to enter the United States from Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>After Biden adopted more restrictive border security measures in January, the number of Cubans and other migrants caught at the border plummeted. <\/p>\n<p>However, the Biden administration is preparing for a possible rise in illegal crossings with COVID restrictions at the U.S.-Mexico border set to lift on May 11.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p> (Reporting by Matt Spetalnick and Ted Hesson in Washington; Editing by Sandra Maler)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/u-s-cuban-officials-discuss\/crackdown-on-migrants-illegally-entering-us-in-el-paso\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportTopNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3B0VO-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3B0VO-VIEWIMAGE\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/u-s-cuban-officials-discuss\/people-pass-by-the-u-s-embassy-in-havana\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportTopNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3B0VM-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3B0VM-VIEWIMAGE\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/u-s-cuban-officials-discuss\/cuba-and-the-united-states-hold-second-round-of-migration\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportTopNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3B0VL-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3B0VL-VIEWIMAGE\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Matt Spetalnick and Ted Hesson WASHINGTON (Reuters) &#8211; U.S. and Cuban officials discussed migration issues on Wednesday as the Biden administration braces for the end of COVID-era border restrictions that have blocked Cubans in recent months from crossing into the United States from Mexico. The high-level meeting in Washington followed one held in Havana [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":8193,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1221],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-top-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportTopNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3B0VO-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8196,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8192\/revisions\/8196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}