WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The United States and Cuba resumed immigration talks in Washington yesterday after a two-year hiatus and U.S. officials said they had again pressed for the release of jailed American contractor Alan Gross.
The last migration roundtable between the United States and Cuba was in January 2011 when officials met in Havana.
The talks were led by Alex Lee, acting U.S. deputy assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, and Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, Cuba’s foreign ministry director general for U.S. affairs.
The State Department said the U.S. delegation reiterated a call for the release of Gross, who is serving a 15-year sentence in Cuba for installing Internet networks for Cuban Jews as part of a U.S. program that Cuba considers subversive.