Local Advocate: repeal of ‘wet foot, dry foot’ will put people in danger, burden immigration courts

President Barack Obama announced Thursday he is ending a longstanding immigration policy that allows any Cuban who makes it to U.S. soil to stay and become a legal resident.

The repeal of the “wet foot, dry foot” policy is effective immediately. 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.

“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 U.S. law and enforcement priorities,” Obama said in a statement. “By taking this step, we are treating Cuban migrants the same way we treat migrants from other countries. The Cuban government has agreed to accept the return of Cuban nationals who have been ordered removed, just as it has been accepting the return of migrants interdicted at sea.”

The Cuban government praised the move. In a statement read on state television, it called the signing of the agreement “an important step in advancing relations” between the U.S. and Cuba that “aims to guarantee normal, safe and ordered migration.”

President Bill Clinton created “wet foot, dry foot” policy in 1995 as a revision of a more liberal immigration policy that allowed Cubans caught at sea to come to the United States become legal residents in a year.

The two governments have been negotiating an end to “wet foot, dry foot” for months and finalized an agreement Thursday. A decades-old U.S. economic embargo, though, remains in place, as does the Cuban Adjustment Act, which lets Cubans become permanent residents a year after legally arriving in the U.S.

Under the terms of the agreement, Cuba has agreed to take back those turned away from the U.S., if the time between their departure from Cuba and the start of deportation hearings in the U.S. is four years or less. Officials said the timeframe is required under a Cuban law enacted after Congress passed the Cuban Adjustment Act.

“For this to work, the Cubans had to agree to take people back,” said Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser.

Since October 2012, more than 118,000 Cubans have presented themselves at ports of entry along the border, according to statistics published by the Homeland Security Department, including more than 48,000 people who arrived between October 2015 and November 2016.

Thousands of migrants were crossing the border from Juarez and into Mexico last summer. Many of them flew into Juarez from Panama then walked across the border into El Paso.

“Part of the “Wet Foot, Dry Foot” policy is to not place Cubans encountered at ports of entry in deportation proceedings, because it’s a waste of resources, because they’re eligible for residency after a year, they generally don’t send them before the immigration courts because they know what’s going to happen is we as attorneys are just going to seek to have those proceedings terminated, so that they can apply for their residency,” Melissa Lopez, with the Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services, said.

Lopez tells ABC-7 before, the vast majority of Cubans were obtaining the parole document and moving forward. Now, migrants will have to be admitted on a visa or paroled into the U.S in order to get apply for their residency after a year. Making the process for Cuban migrants to become residents, much more complicated.

“Currently if a Cuban refugee goes to border, and advises the official they’re Cuban, they’re issued what’s called a parole document and then they’re allowed to enter the United States, they’re typically not detained and a year after entering, they’re eligible to apply for residency. From now on, Cubans will be treated in the same manner that anybody else coming into the port of entry seeking a parole is treated, which means that the number of people obtaining that parole, Cubans obtaining that parole is probably going to go down,” Lopez said.

Cuban migrants will no longer receive some of the benefits they did before upon entering, like cash assistance.

“We never want any benefit to go away, under our immigration system, there are so few benefits for people and so I can’t sit here and tell you that I’m in any way happy that they’re going to be treated similarly as anybody else because at the end of the day, if it results in people suffering and people being mistreated, and people not being able to live a happy, content life, that’s not something that we should ever be okay with” Lopez said.

Lopez adds while all migrants will be treated the same now, she’s concerned the policy change will only put them in greater danger.

“My concern is that the U.S is suddenly going to allow for people, the U.S is going to suddenly start deporting people to a country where we still have concerns for their human rights. It’s not like things in Cuba have changed dramatically since the death of Fidel Castro, a month and a half ago or two months ago, to the point where those concerns about human rights conditions and the way that people are treated have been alleviated,” Lopez said.

“I think what we’re going to see is less Cubans wanting to take that risk of coning into the U.S,” Immigration Attorney Iliana Holguin said.

Holguin says in addition to fewer Cuban migrants coming to the U.S, more pressure will be added to immigration courts, which are already dealing with backlog.

“If Cubans keep coming at the rate that they’re coming but now instead of simply being allowed to come to the U.S and waiting for the one year to pass, and now they’re actually going to be placed with the immigration courts so we can probably expect that our immigration court backlog is going to get even worse than it already is.”

“Because of the court backlog that keeps getting worse and worse, the process is going to be getting longer, longer, longer,” Holguin said.

Holguin adds until funding for immigration courts is increased, the problem will only continue to grow.

“One of the things that we’ve seen in recent years is, that funding for Border Patrol and ICE goes up almost on a regular basis every single year, but the funding of the courts doesn’t go up, so you have this huge disparity,” Holguin said.

Holguin says it’s extremely important for those seeking legal information to avoid Notary Publics, which won’t provide correct legal information. You can reach out the Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services for information at (915) 532-3975.