As the leaders of both the U.S. and Cuba prepare to meet with each other at the Summit of the Americas in Panama City this week, signals have been sent from Washington that the U.S. may be getting closer to taking another step in diffusing the decades-long tension between both countries.

With U.S. President Barack Obama expected to arrive on Thursday night in Panama City for an informal talk with Cuban President Raúl Castro, reports have been circulating that the State Department is expected to recommend dropping Cuba from their State Sponsor of Terror List.

CNN reported that they were informed by a U.S. official this week that it was expected that Cuba would be taken off the notorious list -- which are countries that the U.S. Secretary of State has pointed out as having provided support on multiple occasions for acts of international terrorism -- although the Obama administration has not made any such announcement to date.

Cuba, which was placed on the list in 1982, currently joins three other countries -- Iran, Sudan and Syria -- on the list. To be ID'ed as a state sponsor of terror, the State Department notes, is to be subject to sanctions including restrictions on financial restrictions, limits on U.S. foreign assistance, defense exports and sales bans and certain controls over exports of dual use items, among others.

Since 1962, Cuba has been under a U.S.-implemented embargo, which not only restricts U.S. dealings with Cuba, but restricts other nations from doing business with the island nation. The Cuban government in 2014 projected their embargo-induced losses to be $1.1 trillion since the 1962 embargo began.

In December, President Obama surprised many when he announced that the U.S. would seek to normalize relations with Cuba -- a decision that has brought both praise and backlash from different leaders in Washington.

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-New Jersey, issued a statement on Tuesday recommending that the U.S. not remove the nation from the state terrorism list, stating such a move would be a "another significant misstep in a misguided policy," while calling it "discouraging and alarming" that the White House appeared to be expediting the State Department's review process of Cuba's terror designation.

"The Castro regime's utter disregard for international security standards should not be rewarded with continued concessions from the United States, and any decision to remove Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism must have close scrutiny by the Congress," said Menendez.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, who is of Cuban descent, has also spoken out against the Obama administration's decision to move towards normalizing relations with Cuba, having written a previous letter outlining his reasons.

"The United States cannot in good faith remove Cuba from the State Sponsor of Terrorism List while the Castro regime harbors terrorists who have killed Americans, actively supports designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations by harboring their members and continues to flout international law through clandestine weapon transfers with a rogue regime like North Korea," Rubio wrote in the letter.

Yet, there appear to be more Americans, including most Latinos, who appear to be in favor of the U.S. improving their relations with the island nation to the south. A poll released this week by MSNBC in conjunction with Telemundo and Marist College Institute for Public Opinion found that among 1,446 adults polled, 59 percent of Americans approve of the U.S. moving to diplomatically recognize Cuba.

Among Latinos, 362 of which were polled, a 56 percent majority also favored the defrosting of U.S. relations with Cuba.

It appears that U.S. residents are not the only ones who would be welcoming of friendlier relations between the two nations.

A poll released this week by the Washington Post and Univision from Bendixen & Amandi International, which surveyed roughly 1,200 Cubans on the island, showed that an overwhelming 97 percent felt that improved relations with the U.S would have a positive impact on Cuba. A nearly identical percentage of Cubans polled indicated that they want the U.S. to cease the economic embargo on Cuba permanently.