Biden eases money transfers to Cuba and opposes Trump’s immigration and visa policies

The Biden administration said on Monday that it will lift limits for transferring money to Cuba and rescind outgoing President Donald Trump’s measures that made travel to and from the island more difficult.

The adjustments shocked prominent Cuban-American politicians who had believed that Cuba’s autocratic Communist authorities were on the ropes following last year’s enormous anti-government rallies, which were severely suppressed.

Financial changes include removing a $1,000 quarterly remittance restriction and permitting direct US investments for the first time since 1960.

The US will also restore a family reunion programme allowing Cubans to come to the US, which was stopped by the Trump administration in 2017, as well as resume “educational” US group travel to the island, which was barred in 2019.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, opposed the idea to resume instructional group excursions, saying it was “similar to tourism” and would profit the Cuban regime.

“I am dismayed to learn the Biden administration will begin authorizing group travel to Cuba through visits akin to tourism. To be clear, those who still believe that increasing travel will breed democracy in Cuba are simply in a state of denial,” Menendez said.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tweeted, “The regime in #Cuba threatened [President] Biden with mass migration and have sympathizers inside the administration and the result is today we see the first steps back to the failed Obama policies on Cuba.”

One administration official said that “the humanitarian situation in Cuba right now is very concerning. And as the president directed us to find ways to meaningfully support the Cuban people, he assessed that these measures do take steps to do so at a particularly concerning time.”