President Obama announced that he will end the immigration policy that allows any Cuban who arrives on U.S. soil that stay to become a legal resident. The decision was based on months of negotiations with the Cuban government to take back some of the people who arrived in the United States. The key focus was that Cuba would agree to some of the immigrants coming back to Cuba.
New policy
"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 US law and enforcement," said Obama in a public statement on the Cuban immigration issue, "The Cuban government has agreed to accept the return of nationals who have been ordered removed, just as it has been accepting the return of migrants interdicted at sea.
The change to the policy comes in the beginning of Donald Trump's presidency, which could repeal any change to Cuban policies that Obama has made in his presidential years in office. Trump has critiqued Obama's Cuban policies on Twitter and in television interviews. Yet the end of the policy between Cuba and the United States also aligns with Trump's issue of immigrants coming into the country without applying for a visa.
Cuban futures
The end of the Cuban policy was met with differing reactions; some Cubans were ecstatic and some were not so happy. The end of the immigration policy may show the lifting of the embargo act on Cuba sometime soon. Ralph Fernandez, a lawyer in Tampa, says the end of the policy will no longer provide an escape route for Cubans wanting to hide from Castro rule, instead they will have to integrate into the system to find a way to live.
Fernandez's friend Al Fox, who is a longtime advocate for ending the embargo, sees the end of the immigration policy as a benefit for the economy of the United States. According to Fox, the United States has treated asylum seekers from Cuba as those who deserve special treatment for decades It eats away at taxpayer dollars and costs more to keep them here because we offer them financial benefits.
