Key Biscayne, Florida, saw fifteen Cuban migrants land last week. They made their passage from Cuba in a handmade sailboat. U.S. Customs and Border protection processed the immigrants and let them go. The practice is legal under the United States’ “wet-foot-dry-foot” policy. For Cuban immigrants, as long as they arrive in one piece, that is how they are allowed to stay.
The policy has been around for decades, but those men and women may be the last of their kind. The long overdue repeal is not coming from the fact that it should not be happening, but from improving relations with Cuba.
“Wet-Foot-Dry-Foot” began in 1966 under the Cuban Adjustment Act and also during the Cold War which is well over. It grants them immediate amnesty just for making it to U.S. soil. They are allowed to become permanent U.S. residence after they have occupied the country for a year and a day.
The practice stands as a living testament to what happens when policies go unchecked. While ISIS literally crucifies Christians and refugees try flee their oppressive and deadly presence with nowhere to run, Cubans are landing on U.S. soil and then, often after becoming residents travel back and forth from the country that they so “feared”.
The Obama administration is well behind other countries in accepting religious refugees from Iraq and Syria, and yet, it is as simple as placing a foot on an American beach for Cuban “refugees” to be granted amnesty.
The U.S. embassy in Cuba is even set to reopen as well as the Cuban embassy in Washington, D.C. Yet, there remains this troubling practice of those who can abuse a decades-old policy and be here legally simply because a meeting has not occurred and a signature not made on another piece of paper to close the loophole.
So when it comes to Christians needing refuge from those persecuting them, we do not have the resources, but for those from Cuba we magically do?
