People wait in a line as they are organized to enter the U.S. embassy on the day of its reopening for visa and consular services in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco)
In the midst of the largest Cuban migration to South Florida in a decade, the U.S. embassy in Cuba is renewing its visa and consular services.
The embassy is set to start processing immigrant visas as the U.S. looks to aid in the reunion of families that were broken up in their quest to leave the communist-run island country.
The announcement comes on the heels of at least two dozen Cuban migrants being rescued from small boats by commercial cruise liners. The past weekend alone saw more than 300 migrants from Cuba touching down on the continental United States.
According to NPR, the embassy will process 20,000 visa applications, which would provide many more people with a legal and safe route to enter. In November, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol encountered Cuban migrants 34,675 times along the Mexican border, which was a 21 percent jump from October when 28,848 migrants were stopped by officials.
Efforts by the U.S. to quell migrant tensions with Cuba have been ongoing and officials have conducted several talks in recent months surrounding migration with Havana.
"Engaging in these talks underscores our commitment to pursuing constructive discussions with the government of Cuba where appropriate to advance U.S. interests," the U.S.Embassy in Cuba said in a statement.
A scowling Donald Trump posed for a mug shot Thursday as he surrendered inside a jail in Atlanta on charges that he illegally schemed to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, creating a historic and humbling visual underscoring the former president's escalating legal troubles.
The former New York City mayor, charged as former President Donald Trump's chief co-conspirator in a plot to subvert the 2020 election, is charged with Trump and 17 other people under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
In this image taken from video, a cable car carrying six children and two adults dangles hundreds of meters above the ground in the remote Battagram district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan on Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023. The cable car malfunctioned, trapping the occupants for hours before rescuers arrived in helicopters to try to free them. (AP Photo)
The weakened storm could still cause “continued life-threatening and locally catastrophic flooding” was expected over portions of the southwestern U.S., following record-breaking rainfall, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
