Obama ending ‘wet-foot, dry-foot’ policy allowing Cubans reaching US soil to stay and receive residency

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The policy, put in place by the Clinton administration in 1996, altered the long-standing special immigration status of Cubans in place since the 1960s that had sent hundreds of thousands across the Florida Straits, often in leaky boats or homemade rafts.

The administration’s decision was first reported by the Associated Press.

A new flood of emigrants has attempted to leave the island by sea since U.S.-Cuban diplomatic relations were renewed in July 2015, with many fearing that it was their last chance to automatically gain legal status in the United States.

Cuba has long complained about the policy, saying it encouraged illegal traffic and endangered the lives of those in unseaworthy vessels.

U.S. and Cuban diplomatic officials have been holding talks in Washington this week on “human trafficking,” one of a number of bilateral negotiating tracks set up in the wake of diplomatic normalization.

The Department of Homeland Security has been instructed to implement the policy beginning Thursday.

(c) 2017, The Washington Post ยท Karen Deyoung

Image: Washington Post

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