America's relationship with Cuba is about to be rolled back.
- President Trump expected to announce cooling of relations with Cuba
- Announcement to happen in Miami Friday
- Trump expected to roll back some of President Obama's policies
- Watch LIVE coverage of President Trump's news conference, scheduled for 1 p.m.
President Trump is expected to appear in a Cuban neighborhood in Miami Friday to announce a scaling back of relations between the two countries.
The White House said the president will end individual travel to Cuba as part of tourism, saying the policy was "ripe for abuse." Travelers will have to be part of a group. However, the White House also says family visits will not be impacted, and airlines and cruises to Cuba will be allowed to continue.
Business deals can still be conducted, but the Treasury Dept. can review them to make sure they will not benefit the military.
The goal of the new policy is to restrict business with Cuban companies owned by the military. For instance, U.S. citizens will also not be allowed to stay in hotels owned by the military.
However, tourists will be able to bring back merchandise from Cuba.
One Obama policy not expected to change is the rollback of the "Wet Foot, Dry Foot" status for Cuban immigrants.
Before President Obama left office, he stripped the nearly-automatic pathway to citizenship for those Cubans who arrived on U.S. soil, which had been in place since the 1960s.
Officials say more than 36,000 Cubans face deportation orders because of that decision and the Trump administration's push to deport criminals. Of those immigrants, 29,000 have been convicted of a crime, and another 7,000 are non-criminal immigrant violators.
Trump is also expected to call out the Castro regime on human rights abuses, saying the government has not improved its record.
Those supporting Trump's expected announcement likely have Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, to thank. Both men are Cuban-Americans who opposed former President Obama's 2014 policy shift on Cuba. In fact, Rubio has called for years to toughen America's relationship with the communist country.
Under Obama, more Americans were able to travel to Cuba, and leading U.S. air carriers and cruise ships to market direct flights. Americans were also able to bring more goods back from Cuba. Diplomatic relations were restored, and America opened an embassy in Cuba. President Obama visited Cuba in 2016.
While Obama's policy change was popular in some areas of the country, it was not popular in Miami, where the Communist revolution is still a wound among Cubans.
The long-standing American policy since that takeover in 1969 was to starve the communist system of cash, hoping to incite the population to overthrow it.
Human Rights Watch is against President Trump's impending announcement. While HRW says the Cuban government's repressive practices have not changed, restoring restrictions probably won't lead to improvements.
"The fact that Obama’s approach hasn’t led to political reform in Cuba after just a few years isn’t reason to return to a policy that proved a costly failure over many decades,” said Daniel Wilkinson, HRW's managing director for the Americas.
Amnesty International agreed with HRW's assessment.
Information from CNN and the Associated Press was used in this report.