When U.S. Sens . Jeff Flake and Tom Udall fly back from Cuba to the United States on Wednesday , they will carry the regret of not being able to take with them Alan Gross , a U.S. government subcontractor serving a 15-year prison sentence on the island . `` Alan wants to come home , '' Flake , an Arizona Republican , said at a news conference after a two-hour meeting with the imprisoned American on Tuesday . The two senators , who are critics of the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba , said they had come to Cuba to again push for Gross ' release . They said his imprisonment is an impediment to improved U.S.-Cuba relations . `` Other people have tried to come and meet with him and not been able to , '' said Udall , a New Mexico Democrat . `` That 's an optimistic thing . '' Last week , CNN was the first to report that Gross was refusing to meet with U.S. diplomats in Havana , in protest over the slow progress to free him . Detained American Alan Gross 'withdrawn ' Gross ' attorney Scott Gilbert said his client told him he would be happy to see U.S. officials `` at the airport , when he leaves Cuba , assuming he 's alive . '' Flake and Udall said they also met Tuesday with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla . The Cuban government has called for a prisoner swap : Gross for three imprisoned Cuban intelligence agents serving lengthy federal prison sentences in the United States . But the U.S. State Department has nixed the idea of a swap , saying Gross was an aid worker merely trying to help Cuba 's small Jewish community get online despite Cuban government restrictions on Internet access . Frustrated by the diplomatic impasse , Gross has threatened to kill himself if he is n't freed soon . `` I do feel we are closer , '' Flake said . `` One , because of what Alan Gross has said himself . This is going to end one way or another . We have gone on five years and any benefit the Cuban government may have seen has to have evaporated . '' Gross was arrested in 2009 for smuggling in banned communications equipment to Cuba . He was convicted of violating the island 's sovereignty and sentenced to 15 years in prison . Cuban authorities say he was part of a larger program by the U.S. Agency for International Development to undermine the island 's single-party communist form of government . In 2014 , USAID had to defend programs to create a text messaging `` Cuban Twitter '' program to stir dissent and another program to recruit future leaders on the island . On Monday , The Associated Press reported that the agency would soon cease all covert programs in Cuba . `` There 's been a statement that there wont be covert programs run out of AID anymore and that 's a good thing , '' Flake said . `` Its not just a source of tension between the countries , it puts Americans in danger and really cheapens AID 's mission around the world . '' More on detained Americans .
Sens . Jeff Flake and Tom Udall are able to meet with Alan Gross . Gross is a U.S. government subcontractor serving 15 years in Cuban prison . Cuban government has called for a prisoner swap for Gross .