Alan Gross and his wife Judy in Jerusalem. Photo: Gross family.

JNS.org – U.S. Reps. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, Sam Farr and Barbara Lee of California, and Gregory Meeks of New York on Monday met with Alan Gross, the Jewish-American government subcontractor serving a 15-year prison sentence in Cuba.

It is time for the U.S. and Cuba to “make a serious commitment” to negotiate Gross’s release, Lee said, according to The Associated Press.

Gross, a subcontractor for the United States Agency for International Development who went to Cuba to help the Jewish community there access the Internet, was imprisoned in late 2009 for what the Cuban government called “crimes against the state.”

On Monday, the Congressional delegation also met with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez.