In exchange, Havana has agreed to start accepting Cubans who are turned away or deported from the US.
The policy, in place for more than two decades, has applied exclusively for Cubans.
“I felt like the Obama Administration just threw a hand grenade to all those unfortunate Cubans who are presently looking to experience the American dream like myself and my family”, West New York Mayor Felix Roque said. The rule was revised to be slightly more restrictive in 1996, granting residency to those who managed to get a foot ashore; those intercepted at sea were sent back to Cuba. Regardless of what will happen, there are many people in every corner of the world that want to come to the U.S. There are people in Latin America with similar circumstances as Cubans. In 2014, he reopened ties to the island nation after a half-century of frozen diplomatic ties. Obama said the program contradicted US-Cuba efforts to fight diseases. “Sustaining that approach is the best way to ensure that Cubans can enjoy prosperity, pursue reforms and determine their own destiny”.
Cuban-American voters voting for Republicans embarrasses Obama. But Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, a staunch opponent and the son of Cuban immigrants, called Thursday’s announcement a betrayal of Cubans fleeing persecution.
A statement from the Cuban government said this arrangement was aimed at “ensuring a regular, safe and ordered migration“, Xinhua news agency reported. He also added that the Obama administration had not consulted Congress before changing the policy. Patrick Leahy of Vermont welcomed the move.
Having made the journey, he can not help but think about how the repeal will impact others still living in Cuba. The regime has long argued that the lax immigration policy only encouraged Cubans to make the unsafe 90-mile journey to Florida by boat.
U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area Commander Vice Admiral Karl Schultz oversees the Florida straits, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.
The Department of Homeland Security also ended a program that attracted Cuban medical professionals to the U.S., Reuters reports. It can take years for asylum to be granted, but after one year paroled in the country they could apply for legal residency under the Cuban Adjustment Act. “I’m glad. They should stay there and fight to get free, instead of coming here and then do nothing”, he said.
“It was creating serious problems for the security of Cuba, for the security of the United States and for the security of our citizens left vulnerable to human trafficking, migratory fraud and violence as a result of the incentives created by these preferential policies”, said Josefina Vidal, Cuba’s top diplomat for USA affairs. “For every boat that goes there, there are thousands and thousands of Cubans who take insane blind risks, without knowing if they can survive or not”.
“The Government waits to see whether the policy will continue beyond the current administration before the Government can determine what the policy’s full effects are”, he said.
