Cuban Doctors May 'Defect', Move to the United States After Review of CMPP or Parole Program

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As far as many people can remember, the United States never had a good relationship with Cuba. The White House, headed by the President Barack Obama, has been making an effort to improve the relationship between the two countries. One of the steps Obama wants to do is to put a stop to an ongoing program that helps Cuban doctors and nurses that are working overseas to defect.

According to a report by Latino Fox News, the Cuban government has slammed the program that is currently administered by the NSA or National Security Agency, which encourages Cuban medical staff on international missions to abandon their work.

The program was created in 2006 by then U.S. President George W. Bush in an effort to convince Cuban doctors and nurses to enter the United States. It is open to all medical professionals working on different locations around the world to apply for a U.S. Visa with the support of the U.S. Embassy itself, depending on the country they are assigned to.

The Cuban Communist government is reportedly raising money in exchange of their services, Yahoo! News reported.

According Latino Fox News, the Cuban government earned about $8 billion because of exporting their professionals to other countries to render services. It is definitely one of the country's bread and butter when it comes to their economy. That is why Cuba reacted with so much disgust when the Bush administration started the U.S. program to encourage Cuban doctors and nurses to defect.

However, the U.S. government will do everything they can to make sure the relationship of two neighboring countries will progress.

"The normalizing (of relations between Cuba and the U.S.) is a long, complex process. Considering all our relations in evolution, we believe the Cuban Medical Professional Parole (CMPP or Parole) program should be included among the many elements we have to work on," a statement by a high U.S. official as relayed by Latino Fox News.

Jeff Mason, a White House correspondent, said in an interview with PBS that Cuba has limited the number of doctors to leave the country to go on a medical mission because of this US program. "And that is actually something that led the United States" to put the Cuban Medical Professional Parole program under review.

Since the program started, the United States has approved over 7,000 visa requests, according to the records from the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. State Department.