Two high-ranking White House officials are set to travel to Havana this week to meet with members of the Cuban government to discuss immigration issues.
The announcement from the State Department came Monday, just days after survivors of a speedboat with Cuban migrants heading to the U.S. said the Cuban Coast Guard had rammed their vessel, killing seven passengers, including a 2-year-old girl.
The visit by the State Department’s Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Rena Bitter and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ur Mendoza Jaddou will be the highest-level trip by U.S officials to Cuba since President Biden took office.
They are set to discuss fully resuming immigrant visa processing in early 2023, and the recent resumption of Cuban Family Reunification Parole processing at the U.S. Embassy in Havana.
The Administration resumed the Family Parole policy this summer in the hopes of curbing the largest exodus of Cubans coming to the U.S. in decades—almost 225,000 in fiscal year 2022.
