Republican representatives María Elvira Salazar and Mario Díaz-Balart will present a legislative project on Tuesday to try to reactivate the Family Reunification Program for Cubans (CFRP).
The objective of this initiative is to achieve the reunification of more than 22,000 Cuban families who requested this benefit but could not achieve it due to an interruption of the program in 2017 due to the reduction of the personnel of the United States Embassy in Havana due to sonic attacks. .
Legislators commented to Telemundo 51 They do not know how long it will take the House of Representatives to analyze the initiative that establishes a suspension of the service if there is an exodus crisis or of another type.
In addition, there is also the possibility that people with procedures that have started will conclude them at the Guantánamo naval base, under the consideration that not even a request for political asylum will be allowed.
Díaz-Balart commented to the Miami herald that the initiative does not allow repressors and violators of human rights in Cuban territory to access the reunification program.
“In contrast to the chaos on the southern border of the United States, the encryption of this program will guarantee an orderly and secure way for Cubans to process their applications on the island,” he said.
The reactivation of the family reunification program, also known as Parole, has been requested on several occasions, mainly by Cubans living in South Florida.
The program came into force in 2007 so that families in Cuba of citizens or legal residents of the United States can enter this country without having to wait for the processing of immigrant visas.
This scheme, in addition to entry, also allowed recent emigrants to obtain a work permit in which they received legal permanent residence.
Cuban-American congressmen are very active in presenting initiatives that benefit Cubans interested in not continuing to live under a communist regime.
Last March, they sent a letter to the Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, in which They called for the release of detained Cuban migrants in the centers of the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) and also receive permanent residence.
“They are Cubans who have fled a repressive dictatorship with one of the worst human rights records in our hemisphere,” says the letter, which also reminds the official that several of the Cubans have been detained for more than two years.