The Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program (CFRP) was first established in 2007, and it was anticipated to mark a critical point in immigration reform. It enables some qualified United States citizens and lawful permanent residents to request parole for members of their family who are detained in Cuba. If their requested parole is granted, these relatives may enter the country without having to wait for their immigration visas to become available. Recently, United States border officials have reported large numbers of Cuban migrants trying to enter the country at the U.S. Mexico border. As reported by immigration services (USCIS), more than 10,000 of these immigrants are awaiting their acceptance into the CFRP program. In addition to these tens of thousands, even more Cuban migrants are in the pipeline of the CFRP program which has led to the termination of Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program interviews ever since 2016 due to the excessive number of cases that have yet to be reviewed.
A spokesperson from USCIS states that USCIS is collaborating with interagency partners to regenerate the capacity in Havana, Cuba necessary to proceed with CFRP program interviews. New invitation letters cannot be sent out due to the high numbers of Cuban families waiting to be reunited with their families. Therefore, the only thing these immigrants can do is wait for their requested paroles to be granted, and because there is such a large volume of these requests, it is taking a lot longer than expected.
