Reuters-The Obama
administration on Thursday repealed a measure granting automatic residency to
virtually every Cuban who arrived in the United States, whether
or not they had
visas, ending a longstanding exception to U.S. immigration policy.
The end of the
"wet foot, dry foot" policy, which allowed any Cuban who reached U.S.
soil to stay but returned any picked up at sea, is effective immediately. Cuban
officials had sought the change for years.
The shift had
been in the works for months. It was announced abruptly because advance warning
might have inspired thousands more people to take to the seas between the
Communist-ruled island and Florida in order to beat a deadline.
The United
States and Cuba spent several months negotiating the change, including an
agreement from Cuba to allow those turned away from the United States to
return.
"With
this change we will continue to welcome Cubans as we welcome immigrants from
other nations, consistent with our laws," Obama said in a statement.
The Department
of Homeland Security also ended a parole program that allowed entry for Cuban
medical professionals. That program was unpopular with Havana because it
prompted doctors to leave, sapping the country's pool of trained health
workers.
The U.S. Coast
Guard intercepts thousands of Cubans attempting the 90-mile (145-km) crossing
to Florida every year, but tens of thousands who reach U.S. soil, including via
Mexico, have been allowed to stay in the country, while immigrants from other
nations have been rounded up and sent home.
Cuba welcomed
the policy changes, saying they would benefit the whole region by discouraging
people-trafficking and dangerous journeys that led to bottlenecks of Cubans in
Central America last year.
"Today, a
detonator of immigration crises is eliminated. The United States achieves
legal, secure and ordered migration from Cuba," said Josefina Vidal, the
Cuban foreign ministry's chief for U.S. affairs.
El Salvador's
foreign ministry also welcomed the move, saying "there cannot be migrants
of different categories." Honduras, from where thousands flee each year
without the attraction of favorable U.S. immigration policies, said it would
wait to see if the flow of Cubans actually reduced.
Anticipating
the end of the policy, Cuban immigration has surged since the 2014
normalization, said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser.
"People
were motivated to migrate," Rhodes told reporters on a call, noting some
40,000 Cubans arrived in 2015 and about 54,000 in 2016.
The
administration had rejected Cuban entreaties to overturn the policy before
President Barack Obama's historic visit to the island last year, although even
some White House aides argued that it was outmoded given efforts to regularize
relations between the former Cold War foes.
"Wet
foot, dry foot" began in 1995 under President Bill Clinton after an exodus
of tens of thousands of Cubans who were picked up at sea by the Coast Guard as
they tried to reach Florida.
Obama has been
working to normalize relations with Cuba since he and President Raul Castro
announced a breakthrough in diplomatic relations in December 2014. His
administration has eased restrictions on travel and trade, allowing more U.S.
business with Cuba and improved communications with the island.
"MIXED
EMOTIONS IN LITTLE HAVANA"
The move to
end the policy comes just eight days before the Democratic president turns the
White House over to Republican Donald Trump, who has said the United States
should get more concessions from Havana in exchange for improved relations.
U.S.
immigration policy has given Cubans benefits granted to nationals from no other
country. Until now, virtually every Cuban who made it to U.S. soil was granted
the right to stay in the country, the right to apply for work permits and,
later, green cards, which convey lawful permanent residency.
Jeh Johnson,
secretary of Homeland Security, said on a call that Cuba will take back
citizens as long as less than four years have passed between the time the
migrant left Cuba and the start of the U.S. deportation proceedings.
Under the
agreement Cuba will take back some 2,700 people who left the island among
125,000 others during the Mariel boat lift of 1980, fulfilling an agreement
made in 1984 to take back 2,746 people who the United States did not grant
citizenship to, mainly people with criminal convictions.
Cuba has
previously taken back only a handful of that group.
The new policy
sparked mixed emotions in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood.
Mario Garcia,
a Cuban mechanic in Little Havana, said the change angered him.
"It's not
like Communism has ended in Cuba, so why stop this that has saved people's
lives?" he said.
But Eulalia
Jimenez, who is Venezuelan, said the policy was not fair to migrants from other
countries who also flee bad conditions.
"Why
should only the Cuban people be able to come and make a life for
themselves?" Jimenez said.
Some U.S.
lawmakers had been demanding a fresh look at the immigration rules, saying
Cubans coming to the United States simply for economic reasons should not be
automatically granted benefits intended for refugees.
"This is
a welcome step in reforming an illogical and discriminatory policy that
contrasted starkly with the treatment of deserving refugees from other
countries," Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, said in a statement.
Republican
Senator Jeff Flake also said eliminating the policy was "a win for
taxpayers, border security and our allies in the Western Hemisphere."
Flake and
Leahy both support Obama's moves toward freer trade and travel with Cuba. But
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio said the incoming Trump administration should reverse
the part of the executive order that ended the medical parole system, and said
Cubans fleeing political persecution should receive asylum.
The Department
of Homeland Security is also eliminating an exemption that prevented the use of
expedited removal programs for Cuban nationals picked up at ports of entry or
near the border.
But an existing
Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program is not affected by Thursday's
announcement and remains in effect.
Reuters
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