As number of Cubans stranded in Costa Rica continues to grow, Cuba urges US to end “wet foot, dry foot”

WASHINGTON, December 2nd, 2015 (EFE) Cuba on Monday asked the United States to put an end to the policy that allows Cubans who reach American soil to stay claiming that it spurs illegal immigration and crises such as the current situation in Costa Rica, where thousands of U.S.-bound Cubans remain stranded.

The issue on Monday was the point of greatest disagreement at the biannual meeting on immigration attended by representatives of the Cuban and U.S. governments at the State Department in Washington.

The 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act and the policy known as “wet foot, dry foot” give Cuban migrants who manage to set foot on U.S. territory the right to request permanent residence a year later, while those people intercepted at sea are returned to Cuba.

The Havana delegation reiterated in a communique its “profound concern” at the persistence of a “politically motivated handling of Cuban migration issues” by the United States.

Meanwhile, the U.S. delegation once again made clear that Washington has no intention of making any changes in its immigration policy.

One of the elements that the United States brought up at the meeting was how the two governments can cooperate to fight people-trafficking organizations that “take advantage” of Cuban emigration, Elizabeth Trudeau, the State Department’s public relations chief, said at her daily press conference.

Thousands of Cuban migrants who traveled by air via Ecuador with the intention of continuing on to the United States are presently stranded in Costa Rica after Nicaragua refused to allow them entry.

The United States is concerned about the matter and about the safety of the migrants, but it is an issue that goes beyond bilateral U.S.-Cuban relations, a State Department spokesman said requesting anonymity.

Cuba insisted that the “wet foot, dry foot” policy – as well as the Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program – are “incoherent within the current bilateral context, (and) hinder the normalization of immigration relations between Cuba and the United States, and create problems for other countries in the region.”

The Cuban delegation was headed by the director of the U.S. desk at the foreign ministry, Josefina Vidal, while leading the U.S. side was Alex Lee, deputy assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs.

The immigration dialogue was one of the rare bilateral contacts maintained by Washington and Havana before – in December 2014 – they began the rapprochement that led to the restoration of bilateral diplomatic ties in July.