It is possible that the immigration policy held by the United States toward Cuba could change. Such a move, though, is likely to be a long way ahead. It would take place only after the two nations have finished the normalization of their bilateral relations, and if the economic embargo on the Communist island, which has existed for several decades, was finally lifted.
Mari Carmen Aponte, Western Hemisphere Affairs’ Acting Assistant Secretary of State, made the comments during an interview with EFE to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the upgrading of Cuba and the United States’ interest sections to embassies, which took place on 20 July last year. Talking about the immigration policies that give special preference to Cuban immigrants, Aponte said it is possible that those could be changed in the future, but that many other things would need to be altered for that to happen.
The announcement that the two countries would begin to normalize relations was made in December 2014. Since then, the Cuban government has continually called on the United States to repeal the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, which allows immigrants to stay permanently in the United States if they are able to get to US soil.
Cuba says that those measures are encouraging illegal immigration from the island but to repeal the Act would need such a move to be passed by Congress.