Havana, January 22 (RHC)-- Talks in Havana continued for a second day as Cuban and U.S. diplomats seek to remove obstacles to normalized relations.

On Thursday, conversations took place between representatives of Cuba and the United States, with the participation of the highest-level U.S. delegation to the island in more than three decades.

On Wednesday, during talks in Havana on migration issues, the U.S. rebuffed demands for broader changes to U.S. migration rules that grant virtually automatic legal residency to any Cuban who touches U.S. soil, encouraged by the so-called “wet foot, dry foot” approach the Cuban Adjustment Act. The U.S. government representative, the State Department's Edward Alex Lee, said his government is committed to maintaining that policy.

The Cuban government blames the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act for luring thousands of Cubans to make perilous journeys by land and sea to try to reach the United States.

“Cuba wants a normal relationship with the U.S., in the broadest sense but also in the area of migration,” said Cuba's head of U.S. affairs at the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Josefina Vidal. She called for the U.S. to end “exceptional treatment that no other citizen of the world receives, causing an irregular situation in the flow of migrants.”

After meeting with Cuban representatives for more than three hours, Alex Lee said the “discussions prove that despite clear differences that remain between our countries, the United States and Cuba can find opportunities to advance our mutual, shared interests as well as engage in respectful and thoughtful dialogue.”