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After nearly three years of warming relations between the United States and Cuba, President Donald Trump has announced that his administration will unravel many of his predecessors policies on the communist state.

Speaking in Miami, Florida, Trump announced changes to President Barack Obamas historic rapprochement with Cuba -- fulfilling a promise to the anti-Castro voting bloc he believes helped his campaign clinch the state, but stirring fear among others he could set back business interests and Cubas potential for a more prosperous private sector.

The Cuban government said in a statement published in the state-run newspaper Granma, "Again, the United States Government resorted to coercive methods of the past, adopting measures to intensify the blockade, in force since February 1962, which not only causes damage and deprivation to the Cuban people and constitutes an undeniable obstacle to the development of our economy, but also affects the sovereignty and interests of other countries, inciting international rejection."

The statement continues, "The Cuban Government denounces the new measures to tighten the blockade, which are destined to fail as has been shown repeatedly in the past, and which will not achieve its purpose to weaken the revolution or to defeat the Cuban people, whose resistance to the aggressions of any type and origin has been proven over almost six decades."

In one form or another, the embargo on Cuba has been in place since the Eisenhower administration. But beginning in late 2014, Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro began a process that gradually thawed diplomatic tensions and eased commercial and travel restrictions between the two countries.

This process culminated in significant economic opportunities for both the U.S. and Cuba. American businesses, including airlines, cruise lines, and telecommunications companies, earned 26 agreements with the Cuban government from 2015 to 2017.

Hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars flowed into privately owned businesses in Cuba, The Associated Press reported , spurring the growth of a nascent middle-class that could thrive independent from the government.

For Cuba, there have been tangible benefits in tourism and telecommunications. According to the Cuban Ministry, 74 percent more American citizens visited the island in 2016 than in 2015 and, following through on a pledge to Obama, Castro opened nearly 400 new public Wi-Fi access points around Cuba.

However, the U.S. International Trade Administration told ABC News it hasn't yet released its 2016 statistics on outbound travel and therefore could not confirm those numbers from the Cuban Ministry on U.S. tourism.

While Obama did not end the embargo on Cuba, since only Congress has that power, the U.S. and Cuba reopened embassies in each others capitals for the first time since 1961. The U.S. and Cuba have also signed multiple bilateral agreements to work together on everything from human and drug trafficking to maritime security and migration.

Finally, Obama ended the "wet foot, dry foot" immigration policy that applied only to Cubans. Previously, Cubans who reached U.S. shores earned automatic visas. Now, Cubans have to follow the same process as other refugees and immigrants.

Trump is not reversing all of Obamas changes, but he is redefining what it means to be part of the Cuban military, which could prevent U.S. companies from doing business in Cuba. The White House explained in a fact sheet released earlier today that the policy aims to keep the Grupo de Administracin Empresarial (GAESA), a conglomerate managed by the Cuban military, from benefiting from the opening in U.S.-Cuba relations.

The profits from investment and tourism flow directly to the military. The regime takes the money and owns the industry, Trump said. The outcome of last administration's executive action has been only more repression and a move to crush the peaceful democratic movement. Therefore, effective immediately, I am canceling the last administration's completely one-sided deal with Cuba.

This comes amid concerns that the Cuban military could be the beneficiary of increased American private investment, at a time when Castro has failed to take action on human rights. In 2016, there were 9,940 short-term detentions of protesters, up from 8,899 in 2014, the AP reports.

According to senior White House officials, Trump is also revisiting trade and travel policies toward Cuba, clamping down on individual people-to-people travel. There will still be certain exceptions under which Americans can travel to Cuba and family travel will continue to be authorized. Importantly, no changes will go into effect until the Treasury and Commerce Departments issue new regulations that conform with the administration's policy.

Trump continued, We will not lift sanctions on the Cuban regime until all political prisoners are free, freedoms of assembly and expression are respected, all political parties are legalized and free and internationally supervised elections are scheduled.

The changes will certainly harm relations between Cuba and the U.S. In a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson explained, "The general approach, if I can say that, is to allow as much of this continued commercial and engagement activity to go on as possible because we do see the sunny side, as I described it. We do see the benefits of that to the Cuban people."

But then Tillerson qualified his statement. "On the other hand, we think we've achieved very little in terms of changing the behavior of the regime in Cuba and its treatment of people," he said, "and it has little incentive to change that."

Senior White House officials say that Trump will not close the newly re-opened U.S. Embassy in Havana. He will also not reinstate the "wet foot, dry foot" policy.

To avoid alienating the Cuban-American community, which largely votes Republican, Trump will not re-implement limits on remittances -- U.S. based money transfers -- that Cuban-Americans can give their families back on the island. But if the administration follows through on redefining what it means to be part of the Cuban military, that could affect policies on remittances down the line.

Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, both Republican, Cuban-American hardliners, lobbied Trump hard toward reversal. Importantly, the Trump administration wants to build good rapport with both. Rubio sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is currently looking into the Trump campaigns supposed contacts with Russian officials. He spoke in Miami briefly before Trump took the stage.

Rubio and Diaz-Balart won out, though theres no shortage of actors lobbying the White House the other way. Last week, a group of House Republicans sent a letter to Trump opposing "reversing course" on Cuba. A similar group of Senate Republicans wrote to Tillerson and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, citing the entrepreneurial and national security benefits of continued engagement. Airbnb, Google and other notable businesses have also spoken out recently in support of maintaining current policies.

Tillerson had privately expressed support for Obamas Cuba policy during the transition, according to sources. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, when governor of Georgia in 2010, led a delegation to Cuba and said at the time to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "I think business cures a lot of ills."

Leading human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have also urged the administration to keep Cuba open.

"More travel, more communications access, and more dialogue with Cuba are the way forward for human rights in Cuba," Amnesty International wrote in a blog post, adding that Obamas trip to Cuba last year opened the door to scrutiny and transparency of human rights on the island for the first time in nearly 10 years.

Reversing policy is bad for Cubans, Human Rights Watch said in a statement, "and insisting on human rights progress as a precondition to a new policy is unlikely to bring about change."

During the campaign, Candidate Trump slammed Obamas Cuba policy, telling a crowd in Miami: "All the concessions that Barack Obama has granted the Castro regime were done through executive order, which means the next president can reverse them. And that I will do unless the Castro regime meets our demands."

But at the same time, Trump often criticizes regulations on the business community as "burdensome" and "job-killing.

Delivering a speech at the historic Manuel Artime Theater in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood, Trump made his policy known in the center of the Cuban-American community. The president fed off of a boisterous, rowdy crowd, seeming to even attempt a Cuban accent, shouting Little Havana! when he took the stage. By rescinding certain Obama-era Cuba policies, he went against the advice of Democrats, Republicans and business interests. He did, however, fulfill a campaign promise.

ABC News' Katherine Faulders, Serena Marshall and Adam Kelsey contributed to this report.

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Trump 'canceling' Obama's Cuba policy but leaves much in ...

An Obama-era immigration program intended to protect parents of U.S. citizens and legal residents from deportation has been formally cancelled, fulfilling a key campaign promise from President Trump, the Homeland Security Department announced late Thursday.

Homeland Security John Kelly formally revoked a policy memo that created the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans program. The revocation came on the fifth anniversary of another effort that has protected hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation.

The program to protect parents was announced by President Obama in November 2014 but was never fully launched because it was blocked by a federal court, according to Reuters.

It was intended to keep the immigrant parents safe from deportation and provide them with a renewable work permit good for two years, but it was blocked by a federal judge in Texas after 26 states filed suit against the federal government and challenged the efforts legality.

Republicans decried the effort as backdoor amnesty and argued that Obama overstepped his authority by protecting a specific class of immigrants living in the United States illegally.

The protection program for parents, like the one for young immigrants, was created with a policy memo during the Obama administration. Both programs required that participants meet certain conditions, including not having a criminal history. As part of the expansion to protect immigrant parents living in the United States illegally, the Obama administration also sought to provide the young immigrants with work permits good for three years at a time. That provision was also blocked by the Texas judge.

Revoking the memo and ending the stalled program fulfill a key campaign promise by Trump, who pledged to immediately cancel both efforts. Trump has not said what he plans to do about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, but so far most immigrants protected by the effort have not been targeted by stepped-up efforts to find and deport immigrants living in the country illegally. As of March 31, about 787,000 young immigrants have been approved for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, according to government data.

Arrests of immigrants in the interior of the country have increased under the Trump administration, but deportations are slightly down as fewer people have been caught crossing the Mexican border into the United States illegally.

Trump has made immigration enforcement a top priority and has vowed to continue a crackdown on those living in U.S. illegally and those trying to sneak into the country.

Reuters reported that Trump previously said that his administration was considering different options.

They shouldnt be very worried, Trump told ABC News in January, referring to DACA recipients. I do have a big heart.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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WASHINGTON To the list of things former President Barack Obama did that President Donald Trump is undoing, go ahead and add Cuba.

Two and a half years ago, Obama, with great fanfare, announced an easing of the decades-long travel and trade restrictions on the island nations authoritarian regime, arguing that the policies had not worked and were only punishing ordinary Cubans.

At a speech Friday afternoon in Miamis Little Havana neighborhood, Trump is expected to reverse at least some of Obamas changes, despite public opinion nationally and even among Cuban-Americans that shows support for more ties with Cuba, not fewer.

Ive never seen a coalition this broad and it have no influence, said Marguerite Rose Jimnez, who helped craft the Obama policy at his Department of Commerce and is now with the Washington Office on Latin America advocacy group. This is not a move thats supported by a majority of the Cuban-American community.

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

But it is supported by the veterans of the failed 1961 CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow Fidel Castro. The group endorsed Trump last fall, becoming one of the few Latino organizations to support the Republican nominee.

The president was honored and humbled, said a senior administration official who, along with two other officials, explained the coming policy Thursday on the condition that their names would not be used. The official said that Trump promised the group he would restore tougher restrictions and that his actions fulfill that promise.

Specifically, the changes to be announced Friday would eliminate a provision that Americans have used to visit Cuba on their own. They would also make it illegal for Americans to do business with entities controlled by the Cuban military or intelligence services. This would prohibit individuals from staying at state-owned hotels and would ban U.S. businesses from trading with state-controlled enterprises.

That would be our guiding principle, said a second administration official, who added that the policy would be lifted if Cuban President Ral Castro institutes reforms including free elections and the release of political prisoners.

Trumps new policy will not prevent U.S.travelers from bringing back Cuban rum and cigars or stop airlines and cruise ships from offering routine service. It would also not restore the immigration advantage Cuban refugees have had for decades if they managed to reach dry land in the United States the wet foot, dry foot policy.

Nor will Trumps policy restrict visits by Cuban-Americans to their relatives or reverse the reopening of formal diplomatic ties, the second official said. You cant put the genie back in the bottle 100 percent, the official said.

The crackdown on travel will end what had become an easy way for Americans to visit Cuba: Declare an individual people-to-people educational exchange. A third administration official said group trips will still be permitted for cultural visits and charitable efforts but that the crackdown would make sure visitors are actually fostering closer ties with the Cuban people and not just drinking daiquiris on the beach.

Supporters of Obamas changes, while grateful Trump does not plan to reverse everything Obama did, nevertheless criticized the policy as a step in the wrong direction. Jimnez said that the way the Cuban economy is structured, with so many enterprises tied to the military, blocking trade with entities connected to the Cuban military would basically block trade, period.

Thats a backdoor way of effectively stifling all commerce, she said.

Toward the end of his campaign last year, Trump promised to help the people of Cuba stand up to their government and to make a good deal with Castro to replace the bad one he said Obama had made.

Little Havana is home to much of the one constituency that continues to favor a hard line toward Cuba: the older generation of refugees who left in the 1960s and 70s following Fidel Castros 1959 revolution overthrowing the U.S.-backed dictator.

That generations children and grandchildren are much more inclined to support Obamas moves to increase tourism and trade opportunities with the island as a way of building a society that will bring democratic and human rights reforms.

A nationalpollof Cuban-Americans at the time Obamas policies were announced in December 2014 showed 47 percent to 39 percent support for easing sanctions. Four months later, support had grown to 56 percent to 35 percent.

One prominent Cuban dissident, though, argued that, while he had initially supported Obamas new policy, he has concluded that it is not working.

Reality has proved otherwise, wrote Jos Daniel Ferrer Garca, general coordinator of the Cuban Patriotic Union, in an open letter to Trump. Castros tyranny has been benefiting from the good will of the US government without giving up a bit in their repressive attitude.

Arrayed against Ferrer and Little Havanas community of hard-line emigres are a host of human rights and pro-engagement groups. The U.S. business community has also long supported ending the sanctions because of the opportunities presented by a new commercial market so close to Miami.

All the business entities have made their views known to the administration, said Pedro Freyre, a Miami lawyer who has worked with a number of clients with interests in Cuba, including a handful of cruise lines.

Polling also shows overwhelming support in the general public for easing the restrictions. In a recent Morning Consult poll conducted for Engage Cuba, 65 percent of voters nationally support the Obama policy, while only 18 percent oppose it.

Engage Cubas Madeleine Russak acknowledged an enthusiasm gap in those numbers, however. Those who support the more relaxed rules dont feel that strongly about it, while the pro-embargo side is passionate, she said.

Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), who like many Republicans from rural states supports lifting restrictions that make it harder to export agricultural products to Cuba, said Trump has not been well-served by listening to a small group of pro-embargo lawmakers.

Were on the wrong side of history when it comes to this, Emmer said.

Trump, like many Republicans, promised his supporters to undo much of what Obama was able to accomplish over two terms. Trump is pushing legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Obamas signature achievement. He is working to scrap Obamas Clean Power Plan to restrict carbon emissions, trying to undo workplace rules, repeal banking regulations and is withdrawing the United States from a near-unanimous international agreement to combat climate change.

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Trump Will Add Cuba To List Of Obama Achievements Hes Taking ...

Former Deputy National Security Adviser For Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes, pictured here in 2016, said recently that he doubted former President Barack Obama would respond directly to President Donald Trumps announcement on Cuba. | AP Photo

By Edward-Isaac Dovere

06/15/2017 04:13 PM EDT

Updated 06/15/2017 06:41 PM EDT

The architect of President Barack Obamas Cuba policy says President Donald Trumps proposed changes are likely largely toothless and a waste of time.

But Ben Rhodes, Obamas former deputy national security adviser, said Trump's clampdown on travel and trade with Cuba will nonetheless damage Americas standing in the worldand represent an incoherent stand on promoting democracy from someone who has supported leaders like Turkish President Recep Erdoan and Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte.

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Nobody believes that President Trump has a global concern about democracy, Rhodes said.

Rhodes, who works for Obamas post-presidency office and remains a top adviser, said he was speaking only for himself during a small meeting with reporters held in the office of Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). He said he doubted Obama would respond directly to Trumps announcement on Cuba.

Asked about sparking yet another spat between Trump and Obama, Rhodes said, "that dynamic has been more on the part of the current administration than the former administration."

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Responding to leaks that the new Trump policy, to be announced Friday in Miami, will require American tourists and companies to track the owners of any business with which money has been exchanged in order to ensure no money is going to entities controlled by the Cuban government, Rhodes said that would require significant new staff and financial resources to audit.

Given that, Rhodes predicted, they may end up with a situation where they incur all of the symbolic cost around the world and inside of Cuba for modest or unenforceable changes.

Those costs, Rhodes said, encompass not being prepared for coming regime change in Cuba, empowering hard-liners in Havana who benefit from a fight with America, diminishing the gains in Americas reputation in Latin America that came from Obamas Cuba reopening, and taking another step away from American leadership in the world just two weeks after announcing the withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.

Even though this may be a mini-rollback, you are sending the wrong message that we want to go back to the old days, Klobuchar said.

Klobuchar expects that the bill to lift the travel ban with Cuba, reintroduced in the Senate, could get more support than the 55 senators currently backing it, but she worries about the anti-Cuba climate the president is creating, and the likelihood he would veto the bill may dampen that.

What Im concerned about is that reverse of momentum, not with the public, but in the House and Senate, she said.

Rhodes snapped back at the idea, suggested by critics of the Cuba reopening such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), that he and the Obama administration were snookered by the Castro regime into a bad deal.

Importantly, Rhodes said, the United States neither lifted the embargo nor returned Guantanamo Baythe fundamental things that really have been the thorn in the Cuban governments side remained in place, he argued, adding that the Cubans pushed him hard on both during his negotiations.

Rhodes said that what the regime lost was the ability to position itself as fighting the United States.

Now, Trump is giving that back to them, Rhodes said. They will be able to say, Theyve gone back to being the United States that beats up on people and tells them what to do.

CORRECTION: A previous version of the headline on this story misidentified Ben Rhodes title in the Obama administration. The headline has been updated.

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WASHINGTON The Trump administration formalized an immigration policy shift on Thursday evening that was notable for what it didnt do as much as what it did. The Department of Homeland Security rescinded DAPA, a never-implemented program that would have allowed some undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents to stay in the country.

But more significantly, it left in place the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, a policy that President Donald Trump promised to eliminate, and one that has shielded hundreds of thousands from deportation.

By Friday, the Trump administration was insisting that the president hadnt gone back on his promise to end DACA. And even defenders of the program remain cautious about its future prospects. Still,nearly 150 days into his time in the White House, Trump hasnt rescinded DACA not on Day One of his presidency, as he pledged during the campaign; not when he radically reshaped immigration policy early in his administration; and not on Thursday.

That Trump has been unwilling or unable to move on this front is both a product of an intense, at times underappreciated, lobbying effort by immigration advocates and a testament to the difficulties of removing a benefit once it is in place.

Their stories and their contributions are the most significant thing protecting DACA, Cecilia Muoz, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under President Barack Obama, said. On some level, it is widely understood that these young people are Americans in every way except on paper. ... Thats actually the most important thing, and that was a major contributor to DACA in the first place. The power of that is clearly enduring.

The groundwork for DACA was laid more than a decade before 2012, when Obama created the program. Young immigrants began to come out as undocumented, telling their friends, classmates and lawmakers their stories of moving to the U.S. as children, often not knowing they were here without authorization.

In 2001, their stories inspired legislation called the Dream Act, which would give them a path to becoming citizens. They fought for passage of the bill for years, with more and more of them deciding to tell the world they were undocumented, holding protests in their college caps and gowns, or talking to the media about their dreams of joining the military.

This came close to working. The Dream Act passed the House in 2010. But it failed in the Senate.

Under intense pressure from Dreamers and immigrant-rights activists to do something in the wake of that failure, Obama created DACA in 2012, arguing he had the power to grant temporary permission to some who would not be a priority for deportation so he could focus on deporting criminals and threats. Nearly 790,000 young undocumented immigrantshave received DACA permits since the program began, allowing them to work legally, get drivers licenses and live without immediate fear of deportation.

Republicans were furious when Obama announced DACA, and threatened to dismantle and defund it. Their efforts were repeatedly blocked by Democrats and rejected by Obama. But by 2016, Trump had capitalized on the brewing anger within conservative circles, bashing DACA and promising to end it on his way to securing the GOP presidential nomination.

After he was elected, immigrant-rights activists immediately began to rally their allies to protect their gains. DACA, said Philip Wolgin, who works on immigration policy at the Center for American Progress, was the most visible thing on the chopping block.

A group of college and university presidents called for Trump to maintain DACA. The American Medical Association also voiced support for Dreamers, some of whom had enrolled in medical school after its creation. United We Dream, a youth-led immigrant-rights group, asked lawmakers to press Trumps eventual nominees to head DHS and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on plans for DACA. Senators also crafted a bipartisan bill to maintain protections if Trump did get rid of DACA.

It was about reminding people that Dreamers are part of America.

790,000 people is no small number, Wolgin said. These are real people. ... You have employers talking about this, you have educators, other folks talking about how these are people in communities. These are people who have built their lives and we cant end this.

United We Dream also hoped to get the attention of Ivanka Trump, the presidents daughter and now a senior White House adviser. They didnt think they could appeal to the president on a personal level. But they knew Ivanka Trump was interested in womens rights, so they tried to get her attention through various connections, such as advocacy groups, and by placing op-eds and rallying in New York, said Greisa Martinez, United We Dream advocacy director.

They wanted to get to the president through politics.

For us, the goal was really clearly to make it a political liability, Martinez said.

Obama got in on the lobbying, too. When he spoke to Trump during the transition, he made an effort to explain who Dreamers were and why they should be protected, Muoz said. He said at a press conference soon after the election that Trump and his administration should think long and hard before they are endangering the status of what for all practical purposes are American kids. In his final press conference as president, he promised to speak out should Trump end DACA and try to deport Dreamers.

Whether in response to Obama, or the advocacy pressures, or simply because he rethought his campaign position, Trump began to take a softer tone when talking about Dreamers once elected. He began speaking about them in ways that supporters do: as people brought here by their parents who simply want to work and attend school. In December 2016, Trump pledged to work something out for them without formally rescinding his campaign pledge to end DACA.

When he assumed office, he left the program untouched on Day One and side-stepped it when issuing an executive order in January that ramped up deportation efforts. According to lawmakers, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly seemed to take credit for the continuation of DACA, saying he was the best friend the program had. But it wasnt just Kelly or Trump changing their tunes. Most Republicans in Congress who had voted previously to end DACA under Obama stopped making an issue of it.

The Trump administration still wont say that DACA is no longer among their targets, even after Thursdays memo. A DHS spokeswoman said the future of DACA remains under review. And White House spokesman Michael Short insisted in an email to HuffPost that nothing has changed. The only thing that happened was we rescinded DAPA, Short said. Thats it, plain and simple.

And so, Dreamers with DACA still dont feel entirely safe. On Friday, advocates continued to point out that the administration could still get rid of DACA, or could strip current recipients of their status, detain or deport them one by one, as has already happened in some cases. DACAs continuation after Thursdays action was a relief, but it wasnt a victory.

The only certainty in Trumps America is uncertainty and no memoranda changes that, Lorella Praeli, a former Dreamer and director of immigration policy at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. Theyre trying to distract us with their back-and-forth on DACA as their mass deportation machine proceeds full-speed ahead.

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Trump Killed A Key Obama Immigration Program. But What He ...