U.S. renews visas of two Cuban journalists, after all

In a reversal, the State Department has decided to go ahead and renew the U.S. visas of two New York-based Cuban journalists, after denying them initially, Reporters Sans Frontières reported. 

Tomas Anael Granados Jimenez and Ilsa Rodriguez Santana, accredited reporters who have covered the United Nations since 2005 for the Prensa Latina news agency in Havana, were vacationing in Cuba when they were told their visas would not be renewed. 

The State Department itself offered no indication why the visas were denied or later granted. A spokeswoman for Prensa Latina told the Committee to Protect Journalists that the husband-and-wife team were denied due to a provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act that allows anyone considered "prejudicial to the interests of the United States" to be refused entry.