President Barack Obama cited a goal of normalizing the relationship with Cuba as being behind his decision Thursday to rescind the “wet foot, dry foot” policy.
The wet foot, dry foot policy was put in place by President Bill Clinton in 1995 and allowed Cubans to be safe from deportation as long as they reached U.S. soil.
“The Department of Homeland Security is ending the so-called ‘wet-foot/dry foot’ policy, which was put in place more than twenty years ago and was designed for a different era,” President Obama said in a statement. “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.”
An Obama administration official said on a call with reporters that the challenge behind ending this policy was that Cuba did not accept deported individuals. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson told reporters that Cuba agreed to take deportations of any individual in the four year time frame from when a Cuban leaves the country.
One Obama administration official added that the agreement with Cuba came with the condition that 2,746 people from the 1980 Mariel boatlift will be deported.
Johnson said that some Cubans would not be subject to deportation, but did not clarify about who this would apply to. The secretary of homeland security said that this is an “interim relationship” and that the goal is a repeal of the Cuban Adjustment Act.
The Cuban Adjustment Act allows for Cubans to become legal residents after living legally in the U.S. for a year.
Obama’s deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters that a continued uptick of Cuban migrants coming in recent years was part of the motivation behind the change. He added that the discussions had to be kept secret so that a large flow of migrants wouldn’t come before the repeal.
President-elect Donald Trump is likely to be supportive of the decision. Last year he said that the wet foot, dry foot policy is wrong.
