"We will reinstate the Cuban Family Reunification Parole (CFRP) Program and further increase consular services and visa processing, making it possible for more Cubans to join their families in the United States via regular migration channels," the State Department said in the release on Monday.
In the decades since, the US has been strangling Cuba with more economic restrictions, which have severely undercut the country’s tourism, energy, transportation, telecommunications, healthcare, education and food security systems.
Things began looking up once Barack Obama came to the White House. His administration oversaw a period the media called the "Cuban thaw" during which sanctions started being lifted and bilateral relations began normalizing.
This positive shift was relatively short-lived, however, and things started getting worse again after Donald Trump became president in 2017. During the first year of the Trump presidency, the US State Department recalled most of its diplomatic staff in Havana following reports that they were suffering from various health issues caused by a sonic weapon.