Wet feet, dry feet policy
The original Act directs that anyone who emigrated from Cuba and entered the United States would be allowed to pursue residency a year later; prior to 1995, the U.S. government allowed all Cubans who reached U.S. territorial waters to remain in the U.S. After talks with the Cuban government, the Clinton administration came to an agreement with Cuba that it would stop admitting people intercepted in U.S. waters.
[1] On January 12, 2017, Barack Obama announced the immediate end of the policy, saying, "Cuban nationals who attempt to enter the United States illegally and do not qualify for humanitarian relief will be subject to removal.
[4][5] Between 1960 and 1980, hundreds of thousands of Cubans entered the United States under the Attorney General's parole authority, many of them arriving by boat.
After declining for several years, Cuban "boat people" steadily rose from a few hundred in 1989 to a few thousand in 1993 after the fall of the Soviet Union and its support for Cuba.
(Cubans who have been convicted of crimes in the United States pose complex problems, as Cuba is among a handful of nations that does not generally accept the return of criminal aliens.
Over the years, there have been reports of barriers the potential Cuban parolees face, such as exorbitantly-priced medical exams, exit visas fees, and repercussions for family members who are sequestered.
[citation needed] A well-publicized incident in June 1999 provoked outrage when the U.S. Coast Guard used pepper spray and a water cannon to prevent six Cubans from reaching Surfside Beach in Florida.
In another notable incident in late November 1999, the U.S. Coast Guard opted to bring six-year-old Elián González and two other survivors of an ill-fated journey to the United States rather than taking them to Cuba as the migration agreement provides.
When the boat was in international waters allegedly en route to Florida, Coast Guard officials tried to intercept it and reportedly faced violent resistance from the Cubans when they interdicted the vessel.
When the Cuban government offered to sentence the 12 persons implicated in crimes (purportedly boat theft, kidnapping, and assaulting federal officers) to 10 years in prison, the U.S. agreed to return them.
The judge ordered the government to make its best effort to help the immigrants return to the U.S.. Fourteen of the 15 Cubans re-landed on December 15, 2006, and were given migrant visas.
Many Cuban immigrants departed from the southern and western coasts of Cuba and arrived at the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico; many landed on Isla Mujeres.
Using smugglers based in the Dominican Republic, migrants made the hazardous journey using rickety fishing boats commonly called "yolas" and set foot on Isla de Mona, a small uninhabited island that is part of Puerto Rico.
