If Cubans try to flee to the US they'll be met with a 'robust presence' in Florida, Biden official says: Policy is to send people back to where they came from
The United States government has a plan in place in the event of a mass exodus of Cubans fleeing the Communist island for the Florida shores, according to a senior Biden administration official.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to Reuters on Thursday, said the U.S. will have a 'robust presence' in the Florida Straits if it encounters an increase of Cuban migrants escaping on boats.
It comes as residents in the Caribbean island nation have held demonstrations since Sunday over the lack of basic goods, limits on civil liberties and the mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Monday, U.S. Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas warned them, 'If you take to the sea, you will not come to the United States.'
The U.S. government has warned Cubans that they will not be allowed to enter the country if they decided to abandon Cuba on rafts as a senior Biden official said Thursday that there is already a plan in place to encounter a mass exodus of migrants across the Straits of Florida
Cubans being to sail on a makeshift boat and head from Havana, Cuba, across the Straits of Florida on September 13, 1994. At least 35,000 Cubans made it to the United States on rafts between August and September
Still image from a video recorded by a bystander in Cuba shows a man lying on the ground after he was beaten by the police during a protest this week
Just days after the never-before-seen uprising against the Communist regime that has been in power 62 years, five Cuban men were spotted on video jumping out of a diesel-powered vessel on the shores of Hallandale Beach in Hallandale Beach, Florida, last Tuesday after overcoming the dangerous conditions posed by Tropical Storm Elsa.
On Saturday, the U.S. Coast Guard announced it was concluding the search for nine Cubans who were reported missing after the vessel they were sailing on capsized 26 miles southeast of Key West last Tuesday, a day after they had fled Cuba. However, the Coast Guard managed to save the lives of 13 people.
Under President Bill Clinton's 'wet foot, dry foot' 1995 policy which revised the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, Cubans who entered United States soil were allowed to stay and were eligible to become residents within a year.
The United States government has a plan in place in the event of a mass exodus of Cubans fleeing the Communist island for the Florida shores, according to a senior Biden administration official. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to Reuters on Thursday, said the U.S. will have a 'robust presence' in the Florida Straits if it encounters an increase of Cuban migrants escaping on boats
A group of Cubans wait to embark aboard a boat to U.S. shores at the port in Mariel Harbor, 20 miles west of Havana, Cuba, in May 1980. The exodus began from Cuba after President Fidel Castro agreed to let Cubans leave the Communist island to start a new life in the United States
A Cuban man is saved by the U.S. Coast Guard in the sea off Florida's coast on July 6 after a boat capsized. At least 13 of the 22 people who had fled Cuba were rescued
However, President Obama pulled the plug on what was viewed as a liberal immigration policy. The January 12, 2017 executive decision stopped the longstanding immigration policy that granted permanent residency to Cubans reaching the U.S.
Cubans caught in the sea by U.S. authorities are returned to Cuba or the country from where they originally departed under United States policy.
Despite Obama's undoing of the 'wet foot, dry foot' immigration policy, Cubans continue to put their lives at risk in search of freedom from the Communist country.
According to U.S. Coast Guard data, 536 Cubans have been stopped in the middle of the sea since October 1, 2020, the start of the current fiscal year which runs until September 30, 2021.
The totals are the highest since 1,468 people were interdicted in fiscal year 2017.
Still image of a video filmed outside a home in Cuba shows a portrait of Fidel Castro in flames. The Cuban government has attempted to quell demonstrators by blocking the access to the internet. On Thursday, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis called on the White House to help antigovernment protesters regain access
Riot police walk the streets after a demonstration against the government of President Miguel Dïaz-Canel in Havana, Cuba, on Monday
Members of the Cuban police arrest an antigovernment demonstrator during a rally in Havana, Cuba, on Sunday as thousands took the streets to protest shortages of basic goods, limitations on civil liberties and a rise in the COVID-19 pandemic
Demonstrators shout their solidarity with the Cuban people against the communist government on Thursday in Hialeah, Florida
The Coast Guard intercepted 259 Cuban migrants in fiscal year 2018 and 313 the following year. At least 49 Cubans were stopped in fiscal year 2020.
This week, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio raised concerns that the Cuban government would lift travel restrictions, referencing the 1980 Mariel boatlift that allowed some 125,000 people to reach the U.S. The Cuban-American, a Republican representing Florida, also brought up the 1994 exodus of about 35,000 Cubans who reached the U.S. on rafts.
For now, Cubans continue to test their luck by leaving their country for Central and South America and then trekking northward through Mexico, or traveling there directly, before crossing the United States-Mexico border.
On Saturday, the U.S. Coast Guard announced it was concluding the search for nine Cubans who were reported missing after the vessel they were sailing on capsized 26 miles southeast of Key West last Tuesday, a day after they had fled Cuba. However, the Coast Guard managed to save the lives of 13 people
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Border Patrol agents have encountered more than 22,000 Cubans between October 1, 2020 – the start of this fiscal year – and May 31. The number of apprehensions are the highest in more than a decade.
Nearly two-thirds of all Cubans who were stopped for illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border were sent back to Mexico under Title 42- a pandemic-related health order – in December 2020, President Donald Trump's last full month in office.
The tune changed with President Biden taking over at the White House as 96% of Cubans got the green light to come into the country and reunited with their U.S.-based family members while waiting their asylum process. It's a stark comparison to the 576,985 individual adults arriving from Central America and Mexico who were sent back across the border.
The current crisis drove Florida's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis to petition Biden to restore internet access to people in Cuba after the government cut off its access.
In a letter penned to President Biden on Wednesday, DeSantis pointed out, 'The Cuban people have lost their ability to communicate with one another, and many Floridians born in Cuba have no information on the safety of their loved ones. Equally as important, the world has also lost the ability to see what is happening on the ground as the Cuban people rise in support of freedom.'
Biden on Thursday announced he would seek how to reinstate access to social media networks, which dissidents have used to share images of protests.
Footage which was somehow uploaded to social media Thursday showed police officers chasing after a man and pummeling him to the ground.
Cuban exile Anaylin Blanco, 20, also shared a video with DailyMail.com that shows her friend William Echeverria Sayus, 23, being snatched away by the police after he participated in Sunday's protest.
Blanco said that Echeverria Sayus and her other pal, Enmanuel Hernandez, 26, are in police custody, but that their family members and friends have no information on their whereabouts.
While the Communist-run government agreed Wednesday to lift customs restrictions on food, medicine and hygiene products that travelers can take with them, Yoani Sánchez, who runs news website 14ymedio, was quick to tweet that such concessions would not be enough.
'We do not want crumbs, we want freedom, and we want it nowwwww,' she wrote. 'The streets have spoken: we are not afraid.'
Cubans no longer face 'wet foot, dry foot' policy enacted under Clinton
Since the enactment of the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1964, Cubans have received preferential treatment over other immigrants seeking to start a new life in the United States and were eligible for legal residency.
In 1995, President Bill Clinton revised the legislation by enacting the 'wet foot, dry foot' policy.
The law called for Cubans to be expelled to their countries if they were intercepted at sea, but allowed anyone who made it to U.S. soil to remain in the country and seek permanent residency one year after living in the country as part of the path to citizenship.
For the most part, the U.S. government also shied away from sending Cubans back to their island nation and the Communist regime under Fidel Castro at the time refused to taken them back.
The measure was eventually seen as one-side by the administration of President Obama, who then worked to restore diplomatic ties with President Raúl Castro in 2015.
As part of normalizing relations with the neighboring countries who had been at odds since the start of the Cuban Revolution, Obama and Castro worked to fight human trafficking.
In January 2017, Obama rescinded the 'wet foot, dry foot' measure. Any Cuban stopped for illegally entering U.S. soil or waters is subject to being returned back to Cuba. The government in the Communist-run nation agreed to end its longtime policy of not receiving Cuban nationals who had fled.
'Effective immediately, Cuban nationals who attempt to enter the United States illegally and do not qualify for humanitarian relief will be subject to removal,' Obama then said. 'By taking this step, we are treating Cuban migrants the same way we treat migrants from other countries.'
The policy remains in place today - and surprisingly was not reversed by President Donald Trump, who had the backing of the majority of Cuban-Americans in the state of Florida, where more more than 60 percent of the two million Cubans living in the United States reside, according to U.S. Census data. At least 34.3 percent of them live in Miami-Dade.
Despite the 'sea ban,' Cubans have taken to crossing the United States-Mexico border as their direct path to a better life in the U.S.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows that more than 22,000 Cubans were stopped for unlawfully border crossing between October 1, 2020 – the start of this fiscal year – and May 31. The number of apprehensions are the highest in more than a decade.
Nearly two-thirds of all Cubans who were stopped for illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border were sent back to Mexico under Title 42- a pandemic-related health order – in December 2020, President Donald Trump's last full month in office.
However, since President Biden's inauguration in January, 96% of Cubans were allowed to cross the border and await their asylum process.