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Obama Ends “Wet Foot/Dry Foot” Policy for Cuban Refugees
America will, per a new last-minute decree from Obama, no longer automatically grant asylum to Cubans who make it to US shores. Instead, Cuban refugees (and they really are refugees from that island hellhole) will automatically be sent back to Cuba, overturning a policy that has been in effect since Castro seized control of the island nation. The current policy (known as Wet Foot / Dry Foot) was a product of the Clinton administration, and stipulated that Cubans had to actually touch US soil, where before they were given asylum merely for being picked up at sea.
I cannot help but think that this is part of Obama’s attempts to poke as many people as he can on his way out the door, for Obama must know that such people, when returned to Cuba, are likely to be imprisoned.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is ending a longstanding immigration policy that allows any Cuban who makes it to U.S. soil to stay and become a legal resident, a senior administration official said Thursday.
The repeal of the “wet foot, dry foot” policy is effective immediately, according the official. The decision follows months of negotiations focused in part on getting Cuba to agree to take back people who had arrived in the U.S.
The U.S. and Cuba planned to issue a joint statement late Thursday. The official insisted on anonymity in order to detail the change ahead of the announcement.
The official said the Cubans gave no assurances about treatment of those sent back to the country, but said political asylum remains an option for those concerned about persecution if they return.
…
The “wet foot, dry foot” policy was put in place in 1995 by President Bill Clinton as a revision of a more liberal immigration policy. Until then, Cubans caught at sea trying to make their way to the United States were allowed into the country and were able to become legal residents after a year. The U.S. was reluctant to send people back to the communist island then run by Fidel Castro, and the Cuban government also generally refused to accept repatriated citizens.
The Cuban government has in the past complained bitterly about the special immigration privileges, saying they encourage Cubans to risk dangerous escape trips and drain the country of professionals. But it has also served as a release valve for the single-party state, allowing the most dissatisfied Cubans to seek better lives outside and become sources of financial support for relatives on the island.
For a look at the cultural impact of our Cuba policy, I recommend everyone to pick up a copy of Back to Blood, by Thomas Wolfe. I also suggest viewing Peter Robinson’s interview with Wolfe, given shortly after the book came out.
Published in General
The man is, literally, the worst.
This is the part that is especially galling – why in heck are we working out our own immigration policy with those criminals? That’s like arranging with Eastern Germany to return wall jumpers.
I wonder what Raoul Castro had to do with this. Amazing how Obama held the door open at the southern border for waves of potential Democrats, yet sends potential Republicans back for certain imprisonment and/or death.
Worst than worst, truly evil. Wonder if his mother’s real name was “Rosemary?”
OK -but is this going to last more than 8 days? It’s petulant and stupid, but the damage is limited, is it not?
One hopes anyway.
So escapees from Cuba proper will now be sent back to the gulag, while terrorist detainees in Gitmo are being released with free rein to return to the battlefield. Policies that rather sum up the administration succinctly.
I’ll comment when my stomach settles. That may take 8-9 more days.
Tweet trump tweet!
There will be a deep two week depression on the illegal boat rental market? Damn.
That’s what I’m thinking. I imagine Trump can easily reinstate the policy when he takes office.
In which case, yeah, what’s the point? Just to poke the Right in the eye and as a gesture of his true love for the Castro’s?
This guy truly is a SOB. What a despicable anti-American bastard.
I would deal with this the same way I would the Iran Deal and the Paris Accords and the China Climate deal. Submit the entire Cuba deal to the Senate as a treaty. There is no way any of those agreements will get 67 votes, and if they do, then they will actually be legal. But if not, they’re gone.
Muslims welcome but Cubans are not. Stomach still churning. Rushing out to the store to buy more Maalox. BRB.
Don’t forget to pick up some ammo as well.
Syrians = Yes
Cubans = No…….got it
¡Viva Obama!
The Good Lord willing he won’t use his pen and phone to send GITMO back in the next week.
Go Clinton!
“America will, per a new last-minute decree from Obama, no longer automatically grant asylum to Cubans who make it to US shores.”
So eager is he to add one more black mark to his record.
Thank God he’s leaving.
Go where?
I here Hades is nice at this time of year. May I suggest?
If you could read my mind in regards to Obama, it would say,
“redacted for CoC.”
I agree. I see no reason why A) this can’t be overturned with the stroke of a pen, and B) as long as we’re at it, why not return to the more liberal pre-1995 rules regarding Cuban refugees since the refugees are still fleeing a communist hell-hole.
Perhaps Obama has noticed what happens to the little people when globalization and technology do not change their lives. In America we may lose jobs to advancing technology and global trade, but who cannot say we aren’t way better off because of those things? Take Cuba, or Venezuela, even wind up clocks stop when the socialists take over. Our socialists partially took over health care six years ago. What do we see in the small segment of the population who must accept the government solution? Out of control inflation, a collapse of available carriers and a collapse of the number of service providers and facilities willing to take on patients; this solution is a degrading like a corpse in South Miami in August, ugliness only only seen when socialists try to fix things.
This is infuriating.
What horrible people in the Obama administration.
Me too, and I very very seldom swear.
It’s been a while since he did anything that made me this angry. I’m pretty numb to his stupid actions.
This is wild.
I think Rubio needs to be unleashed on Obama.
Is this something Trump can undo ?
And when they’re imprisoned, the beatings, torture and rape are not implied, they are inherent.
This guy.
More to the point, the anchor babies of illegal aliens from Mexico vote Democrat. Cubans vote Republican. He refuses to enforce the law for the former, and is sending the latter back to a Communist country that will punish them for trying to escape. He really is a dirtbag. And I wanted to use a much stronger word than dirtbag.