Administration Proposes Renewed Immigration Talks With Cuba

The Obama administration asked Cuba's communist government on Friday to resume talks on legal immigration to the United States. Such talks had been suspended by President George W. Bush.

The State Department said it had proposed that the discussions be restarted to "reaffirm both sides' commitment to safe, legal and orderly migration, to review trends in illegal Cuban migration to the United States and to improve operational relations with Cuba on migration issues."

President Obama "wants to ensure that we are doing all we can to support the Cuban people in fulfilling their desire to live in freedom," said Darla Jordan, a department spokeswoman. "He will continue to make policy decisions accordingly."

The move follows Obama's decision in April to rescind restrictions on travel to Cuba by Americans with family there and on the amount of money they can send to their relatives on the island.

It also comes ahead of a high-level meeting June 2 of the Organization of American States, where Cuba's possible reentry into the regional bloc will be discussed. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will attend the meeting in Honduras.

Clinton, however, told lawmakers this week that the United States would not support Cuba's membership in the organization until and unless President Raúl Castro's regime makes democratic reforms and releases political prisoners.

She and Obama have also said that broader engagement with Cuba, including the possible lifting of the U.S. embargo on the island, is dependent on such steps.

There was no immediate reaction from the Cuban government.

In Miami on Friday, the influential Cuban American National Foundation welcomed the news, saying that resumed migration talks could be "an opportunity to resolve issues of United States national interest."

However, three Cuban American members of Congress from Florida -- Republican Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, his brother Mario and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen -- denounced the move as "another unilateral concession by the Obama administration to the dictatorship."

The twice-yearly immigration talks had been the highest-level contacts between the two countries, which have no diplomatic relations. Their goal was to allow tracking of adherence to 1994 and 1995 accords designed to promote legal, orderly migration between the countries, and to avoid a repeat of the summer of 1994, when tens of thousands of Cubans took to the sea in flimsy boats.

The Bush administration decided to scuttle the meetings in 2003, arguing that they were not crucial for monitoring the agreements. The suspension came during an especially prickly period in U.S.-Cuba relations.