Migration talks an example of ‘constructive’ engagement with Cuba, State Department says
Talks between U.S. and Cuba officials in Washington on Thursday focused on the implementation of bilateral migration accords and obstacles to fulfilling their goals, the State Department said in a statement calling the meeting an example of “constructive” engagement with Cuba.
The meeting took place at a time Cubans are arriving in record numbers at the U.S. border with Mexico. Almost 79,000 have reached the border in the past six months, and another 1,399 have been stopped by the Coast Guard while trying to reach U.S. shores.
The State Department said the talks provided an opportunity to discuss the implementation of the migration accords with Cuba, comprising a series of bilateral agreements reached in 1984, 1994, 1995 and 2017.
The U.S. delegation, headed by Emily Mendrala, deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs, “highlighted areas of successful cooperation on migration, while also identifying issues that have been obstacles to fulfilling the goals of the Accords,” the press release said. “Engaging in these talks underscores our commitment to pursuing constructive discussions with the Government of Cuba where appropriate to advance U.S. interests.”
The two governments had agreed to hold migration talks regularly, but those were suspended in 2018.
No new measures were announced after the meeting.
In recent days, both governments have been exchanging accusations about the other not complying with the existing migration accords.
On Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the administration was considering “resuming” migration accords with Cuba that had been “discontinued” but did not elaborate.
Ahead of the meeting on Thursday, the foreign affairs vice-minister leading the talks on the Cuban side, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, said that “existing” bilateral agreements “were in force” and they included “obligations” to “guarantee that migration is regular, orderly and safe.”
Josefina Vidal, another Cuban foreign affairs vice-minister, told The Associated Press that the U.S. had not honored a commitment to issue at least 20,000 immigration visas annually to Cubans for the past five years.
That commitment was part of an agreement reached in September 1994 to defuse the rafter crisis. “Cuba pledged to discourage irregular and unsafe departures,” according to a State Department description of the accords. The following year, the two countries also agreed that the U.S. would return Cubans interdicted at sea “who did not have a well-founded fear of persecution if returned,” and Cuban authorities said they would not retaliate against the returned migrants, according to the State Department’s overview.
The 1995 agreement appears to be holding up, as the U.S. Coast Guard continued repatriating Cubans found at sea, more recently on Monday, when a cutter took back 67 Cubans to the island.
Under a separate agreement reached by the Obama administration and Raúl Castro’s government in 2017, the Department of Homeland Security eliminated the special parole policy known as “wet foot, dry foot” that granted Cubans arriving at the border legal entry into the United States. Cuban authorities agreed to take back Cubans deported by the U.S. if they had recently left the island.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently told the Miami Herald that the Cuban government stopped accepting deportations of its nationals in the current fiscal year.
U.S. sanctions hitting tourism and remittances, the effects of the pandemic, and a decrease in oil shipments from Venezuela that Cuba used to resell at better prices in the open market have all combined in a perfect storm that hit hard the chronically unproductive centralized economy of the island. The rapidly deteriorating economic situation and an ongoing crackdown on people who oppose or criticize the government have set in motion the current exodus.
But Cubans trying to emigrate or reunite with their relatives in the U.S. are having a hard time finding legal pathways because consular services in Havana have been suspended since 2017 over the so-called Havana Syndrome affair. The U.S. Embassy in Havana said it will start processing some visa applications in May, but the move will not be enough to address a massive case backlog. And most applicants still need to travel to Guyana, where most visa processing for Cubans seeking to come to the United States is still done.
A Cuban reunification program has remained suspended since 2017. U.S. authorities claim the program is in effect, but about 22,000 applications remain pending.
On Wednesday, the hashtag #ConsularServicesinCuba was trending on Twitter, with several accounts asking the administration to fully restart visa services in Havana.
The State Department said U.S. officials also addressed consular services at the U.S. Embassy in Havana during the Thursday meeting. Still, the statement only refers to the announcement about the resumption of limited immigrant visa services in May. No further expansion of services was announced.
“Enabling safe, legal, and orderly migration between Cuba and the United States remains a mutual interest between the United States and Cuba and is consistent with U.S. interests in fostering family reunification and promoting greater respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in Cuba,” the statement says.
The Center for Democracy in the Americas, of which Mendrala was a former director, put out a statement praising the administration for hosting the talks with Cuba.
“We encourage the Administration to continue engaging on issues of mutual concern in order to advance U.S. interests, avoid future humanitarian and migratory crises, mitigate strain on resources along the migratory route, and reduce further suffering on the part of the Cuban people,” the CDA said.
But in a press conference Thursday in Miami, some Cuban exiles groups criticized the talks, arguing the Cuban government has historically used migration as an escape valve to get rid of opponents and as a political weapon against the U.S. Three U.S. representatives from Miami also wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressing their “grave” concern about the talks.
“We especially condemn any attempts to legitimize this illegitimate dictatorship, which violently suppressed activists following the July 11 protests and imprisoned hundreds of people, including children,” said the letter, signed by Republican U.S. Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart, María Elvira Salazar and Carlos Gimenez.
They also asked the U.S. delegation to raise the issue of human rights violations during the meeting.
The State Department did not immediately reply to an email asking if the officials did so.
This story was originally published April 21, 2022 at 6:03 PM.