Will Cubans Become Undocumented Immigrants? Obama Orders End To 'Wet Foot, Dry Foot' Policy

UPDATED: 8:25 p.m. EST — In a statement, President Barack Obama said ending the “wet foot, dry foot” policy is an “important step forward to normalize relations with Cuba and to bring greater consistency to our immigration policy.”

“Effective immediately, Cuban nationals who attempt to enter the United States illegally and do not qualify for humanitarian relief will be subject to removal, consistent with U.S. law and enforcement priorities,” Obama said.

The U.S. also is ending the Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program to protect the health of the Cuban people.

The Washington Office on Latin America, a leading research and advocacy organization advancing human rights and social justice is the Americas, praised the action.

“Up until now, U.S. policy has permitted Cubans who arrive at a U.S. border without a visa to be paroled into the country, and put on a path toward citizenship, an advantage that no other Latin Americans enjoy, and one that has seemed particularly unfair when children and families fleeing violence in Central America are subject to deportation. This change 'normalizes' our treatment of Cuban immigrants,” the group said in a statement.

Original story:

With barely more than a week to go left in office, President Barack Obama Thursday put Cubans on the same footing as other foreigners entering the United States without a visa, ending a longstanding U.S. policy of giving them preferential treatment.

The action substantiates fears the end to the 50-year U.S. isolation of the Caribbean island would make it more difficult for Cubans to emigrate.

USA Today said it confirmed an end to the “wet foot, dry foot” policy through a congressional staffer briefed by the administration.

The move follows a thaw in relations between the U.S. and Cuba that led to the reopening of embassies in each other’s countries. Cuba reportedly agreed to start accepting Cubans who receive deportation orders in exchange.

An end to the preferential treatment of Cuban immigrants could put a crimp in President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to renegotiate the current relationship.

The 1996 Cuban Adjustment Act provided Cubans a way to obtain a green card giving them permanent residence as long as they had been in the U.S. for a year, were admitted temporarily or won a visa in a periodic lottery, or were considered admissible as immigrants — without having to meet requirements imposed on other immigrants.

The policy became known as “wet foot, dry foot,” meaning as long as Cubans made it to dry land, their ability to stay in the United States was secure. Hundreds of thousands have fled the Caribbean island by often-rickety boat, attempting to evade U.S. Coast Guard cutters patrolling coastal waters. In recent years, however, many Cuban migrants have been taking a land route from the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico to Texas, meaning that once they get to the U.S.-Mexico border they are waved through.

Cubans expressed fears the change in U.S.-Cuban relations would change the policy toward immigration. Since overtures began in December 2014, Cuban immigration has surged.

“It’s really sort of drawing Cubans to take to the sea and try and make it to the United States because there is this perception that something is going to change, and they fear that their window of opportunity may be closing,” Lt. Cmdr. Gabe Somma of the U.S. Coast Guard told RealClear Politics last year.

The Center for Immigration Studies said immigration by Cubans totaled 25,806 last year, compared with 43,154 in 2015 and 24,277 in 2014. In recent years, the center said, those migrating tended to come from the working class, not the upper- and middle-classes in earlier waves who saw themselves as political exiles.

Immigration has been a hot-button issue for several years but the focus usually is on undocumented immigrants from Mexico. Much of the rhetoric in Congress and during the election centered on reducing immigration.

Trump has proposed reducing immigration by 30 million, estimated Mark Hugo Lopez, director of Pew Hispanic Research, the Atlantic reported. Trump has proposed reducing immigration to what he called “historical norms,” historically about 10 percent of the population. The foreign born population currently represents about 14 percent.

Pew estimated if current trends continue, the foreign born population will make up 18 percent of the U.S. population by 2065.