Immigration Rules for Cuban Nationals

For years, the United States was chided for giving migrants from Cuba special treatment that no other group of refugees or immigrants had received with the former wet foot/dry foot policy. As of January 2017, the special parole policy for Cuban migrants was discontinued. The discontinuation of the policy reflects the reestablishment of full diplomatic relations with Cuba and other concrete steps toward the normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations that President Barack Obama initiated in 2015. Storied Past of the Wet Foot/Dry Foot Policy The former â€Å"wet foot/dry foot policy† put Cubans who reached U.S. soil on a fast track to permanent residency. The policy expired on January 12, 2017. The U.S. government had initiated the policy in 1995 as an amendment to the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act that Congress passed when  Cold War tensions ran high between the U.S. and the island nation of Cuba. The policy stated that if a Cuban migrant was apprehended in the water between the two countries, the migrant was considered to have â€Å"wet feet† and was sent back home. However, a Cuban who made it to the U.S. shore can claim â€Å"dry feet† and qualify for legal permanent resident status and U.S. citizenship. The policy had made exceptions for Cubans who were caught at sea and could prove they were vulnerable to persecution if sent back. The idea behind the â€Å"wet foot/dry foot policy† was to prevent a mass exodus of refugees such as the Mariel boatlift in 1980 when some 125,000 Cuban refugees sailed to South Florida. Over the decades, untold numbers of Cuban migrants lost their lives at sea making the perilous 90-mile crossing, often in homemade rafts or boats. In 1994, the Cuban economy was in dire straits after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Cuban President Fidel Castro threatened to encourage another exodus of refugees, a second Mariel lift, in protest of the U.S. economic embargo against the island. In response, the U.S. initiated the â€Å"wet foot/dry foot† policy to discourage Cubans from leaving. The U.S. Coast Guard and Border Patrol agents intercepted roughly 35,000 Cubans in the year leading up to the policy’s implementation. The policy was wrought with extreme criticism for its preferential treatment. For example, there were migrants from Haiti and the Dominican Republic who had arrived on U.S. land, even on the same boat with Cuban migrants, but were returned to their homelands while Cubans were allowed to stay. The Cuban exception had originated in Cold War politics from the 1960s. After the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Bay of Pigs, the U.S. government viewed migrants from Cuba through a prism of political oppression. On the other hand, officials view migrants from Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and other nations in the region as economic refugees who almost always would not qualify for political asylum. Over the years, the â€Å"wet foot/dry foot† policy had created some bizarre theater along Florida’s coasts. At times, the Coast Guard had used water cannons and aggressive interception techniques to force boats of migrants away from land and prevent them from touching U.S. soil. A television news crew shot video of a Cuban migrant running through the surf like a football halfback trying to fake out a member of law enforcement by touching down on dry land and sanctuary in the United States. In 2006, the Coast Guard found 15 Cubans clinging to the defunct Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys but since the bridge was no longer used and cut off from land, the Cubans found themselves in legal limbo over whether they were considered dry foot or wet foot. The government ultimately ruled the Cubans were not on dry land and sent them back to Cuba. A court decision later criticized the move. Despite the expiration of the former policy, Cuban nationals have several options to apply for green card or permanent resident status. These options include the general immigration laws afforded all non-Americans seeking immigration to the U.S. through the Immigration and Nationality Act as well as the Cuban Adjustment Act, the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program, and the Diversity Green Card lottery held every year. The Cuban Adjustment Act The Cuban Adjustment Act (CAA) of 1996 provides for a special procedure under which Cuban natives or citizens and their accompanying spouses and children may get a green card. The CAA gives the American Attorney General the discretion to grant permanent residence to Cuban natives or citizens applying for a green card if they have been present in the United States for at least 1 year, they have been admitted or paroled, and they are admissible as immigrants. According to U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS), Cuban applications for a green card or permanent residence may be approved even if they do not meet the ordinary requirements of Section 245 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Since the caps on immigration do not apply to adjustments under the CAA, it is not necessary for the individual to be the beneficiary of an immigrant visa petition. Additionally, a Cuban native or citizen who arrives at a place other than an open port-of-entry may still be eligible for a green card if USCIS has paroled the individual into the United States. The Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program Created in 2007, the Cuban Family Reunification Parole (CFRP) Program allows certain eligible U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to apply for parole for their family members in Cuba. If granted parole, these family members may come to the United States without waiting for their immigrant visas to become available. Once in the United States, CFRP Program beneficiaries may apply for work authorization while they wait to apply for lawful permanent resident status. Diversity Lottery Program The U.S. government also admits about 20,000 Cubans each year through a visa lottery program. To qualify for the Diversity Via Program lottery, an applicant must be a foreign citizen or national not born in the United States, from a country with a low immigration rate to the U.S. People born in countries with high U.S. immigration are excluded from this immigration program. Eligibility is determined only by the country of your birth, it is not based on country of citizenship or current residence which is a common misperception that applicants make when applying for this immigration program.

Development of the American Constitution Essay - 1666 Words

The Constitution was originally constructed as a document to unify a young nation, ensure rights, and prevent one man from having too much power. In order for the Constitution to be ratified, it evaded addressing divisive issues between the north and south, as to keep both sections of the union in favor of the Constitution. As the nation as well as its dependency on slavery grew, the ambiguity of the Constitution gave way to tension on three major issues between the abolitionist north and the pro-slavery south-what the protocol should be pertaining to runaway slaves, the slave status of newly formed states, and could states legally and peacefully secede from the Union. Because of the Constitution’s inability to directly address these†¦show more content†¦Clay presented the compromise of 1850, on January 29th, after mulling over the compromise for eight months. The compromise stated that Texas would surrender the disputed land claims and in return would receive ten mil lion dollars from the government to pay the debt owed to Mexico. The territories of New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah would be created but with no mention as to their preference towards being a free state or a slave state. Washington D.C. would discontinue slave trade, but still allow the owning of slaves. California would be added as a free state, and to appease the slave states, who would oppose the majority in Congress being free states, the Fugitive Slave Act was added. The Fugitive Slave Act was the most divisive out of all the components of the Compromise of 1850. This act required all citizens to help return runaway slaves. The new law created a force of federal commissioners given the power to follow the â€Å"fugitive† slave into any state and return them to their owners. There was no limit-meaning slaves who had been free many years could be returned. Citizens who refused to help in the pursuit of the fugitives received time in prison as well as fines. The captu red slave could not testify on their own behalf and did not have the right to a jury trial. Even if the slave had been a freed man, there was no means to prove it, leaving them powerless to beingShow MoreRelatedThe Development of the American Constitution Essay510 Words   |  3 PagesThe Articles of Confederation were approved by all the early American states in 1781, but by 1787, it was apparent that the Articles were insufficient for the young nation to operate on. A convention was formed with the priority job being to revise the Articles of Confederation; however, they only concluded that an entire new structure was needed to fulfill the demands of the growing country. The Constitution was then born. The Constitution provided the structure of government and power that was neededRead MoreQuestions On American Political Development1308 Words   |  6 Pages1. *American Political Development (APD) / *Fifth Republic American Political Development- a growing subfield of American politics with important links to other fields of political science. Fifth Republic- the fifth and current republican constitution of France. An example of (APD) is them wanting more for themselves and less for everyone else. An example of fifth republic is just a presidential parliamentary form of government that had to prove themselves of not being weak due to a weak presidentRead MoreThe Marshall Court1518 Words   |  7 PagesThe life of every American citizen, whether they realize it or not, is influenced by one entity--the United States Supreme Court. 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Church Lady free essay sample

I suggest you search comedians and religion and then go to Youth and search Lewis Black and Eddie and George and religion. Has one on the Ten Commandments. If you are sensitive to profanity, dont do this. I dont want to be accused of offending your tender young sensibilities. After watching Carvers Church Lady routine I can see some resemblances between his character and the Image of Silence Do good that Franklin created.The church lady character hat Carrey imitates is very similar In attitude to Silence Do good. She Is sarcastic and Judgmental and, like Silence Do good, she makes fun of certain everyday customs and beliefs. The video that I watched was an skit where the church lady Is doing Interviews with famous people. In the skit, the church lady Is Interviewing a Playboy model who Is defending herself against claims that she was a prostitute.Although times are very different now, Issues such as a womans social status are something hat have always been around. We will write a custom essay sample on Church Lady or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Another video I watched was Flip Willows debate with the devil. In the video Bobby comes out as the devil and he and Flip Wilson proceed to have a debate trying to win the favor of the congregation. In the skit, Wilson preaches about goodness and believing in God but makes comment about loose women on the side. I can relate this with Silence Dogwoods writings too since she talks about the inconsistencies in religion as well.I think that Beck ND Thomas actually have very little in common. Beck is a successful talk show host who decided to re-write Thomas work, Common Sense. Thomas was pretty much unsuccessful in everything he did before he began writing works such as Common Sense that added fire to the impending revolution. Beck tries to relate common day things to Thomas writings but his writings were in reference to a completely different political situation.