‘Wet foot, dry foot’ policy repealed
President Barack Obama is ending an immigration policy — known as the “wet foot, dry foot” policy — that allows any Cuban who makes it to U.S. soil to stay and become a legal resident, a senior administration official said.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama ordered an immediate end Thursday to the long-standing U.S. policy of granting easy residency permits to Cubans who reach U.S. shores, probably the last major foreign policy initiative of his tenure.
In a statement, Obama said ending the so-called “wet foot, dry foot” policy is a step “forward to normalize relations with Cuba and to bring greater consistency to our immigration policy.”
The policy shift means that any Cuban who attempts to enter the United States illegally and without valid humanitarian or asylum cases can be sent back home, like most other migrants in the same situation.
Over the last two decades, Cubans fleeing the communist-ruled island have been given a unique status because they were viewed by U.S. administrations as having escaped an enemy to reach safety in America.
As long as they stepped on land, the Cubans were welcomed and given visas. Those who were intercepted at sea were usually returned to Cuba.
For that reason, the practice became known as the “wet foot, dry foot” policy.
As relations have improved between Washington and Havana in the last two years, the special immigration category seemed incongruous to the Obama administration.
Travel from Cuba has become much easier since Cuban President Raul Castro lifted numerous restrictions on people leaving the country.
“What this means is, the past is the past,” Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said in a conference call with reporters. “The future will be different.”
Cuba always complained that the U.S. policy served as an incentive to attract refugees.
Thousands of Cubans have sought to flee the island in recent months, apparently apprehensive that the policy might be scrapped before Obama leaves office.
As a result of the policy, tens of thousands of Cubans have embarked on long, perilous journeys through South and Central America to reach the U.S.-Mexico border, where they surrender to American officials, rather than taking a boat across the South Florida straits.