DESPITE ONGOING CONTROVERSIES, ANNUAL US-CUBA MIGRATION TALKS ARE HELD

Since 1994, the US and Cuba have held talks twice a year on migration from Cuba.  The meetings were instituted as part of the 1994 agreement to halt the then increasing number of Cubans attempting to reach the US.  Part of the 1994 agreement was that the US would stop allowing Cubans picked up at sea to get US residence, but would rather return them to Cuba.  Cuba promised to patrol its waters for those attempting to leave, and to not retaliate against those the US returned.  The US also made available 20,000 immigrant visas each year for Cubans.

Despite these pledges, illegal migration from Cuba continues, and is a major topic of discussion at this year’s meeting.  In particular, Cuba wants to address what it perceives as the US’s ongoing attempts to encourage people to leave Cuba by broadcasting descriptions of the island’s economic hardships.  Cuba blames the US economic embargo for its economic problems, and blames the US policy of allowing Cuban migrants who reach shore to stay in the US for creating a rise in human smuggling. 

Cuba also maintains that this US policy is in direct violation of the 1994 agreement, under which the US promised to not admit “Cuban migrants who reach US territory in irregular ways.”  However, the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 states that all Cubans who reach the US, by whatever means, are eligible to stay.  The INS has answered this apparent contradiction by explaining that the Cuban Adjustment Act is discretionary, and that the 1994 agreement says only that the US cannot allow all Cubans to stay, and does not regulate which Cubans the US can admit. 

While Cuba wants to discuss the smuggling and admission issues, the US is concerned that Cuba is not issuing exit permits to medical personnel.  US officials also want to discuss possible mistreatment of Cubans returned to the island after failed attempts to reach the US.

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