Wet feet, dry feet policy

The wet feet, dry feet policy or wet foot, dry foot policy was the name given to a former interpretation of the 1995 revision of the application of the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 that essentially says that anyone who emigrated from Cuba and entered the United States would be allowed to pursue residency a year later. Prior to 1995, the U.S. government allowed all Cubans who reached U.S. territorial waters to remain in the U.S. After talks with the Cuban government, the Clinton administration came to an agreement with Cuba that it would stop admitting people intercepted in U.S. waters.

For two decades thereafter, any Cuban caught on the waters between the two nations (with "wet feet") would summarily be returned to Cuba or sent to a third country, while one who made it to shore ("dry feet") got a chance to remain in the United States, and later would qualify for expedited "legal permanent resident" status in accordance with the 1966 Act and eventually U.S. citizenship. However, the policy came with increased risk for asylum seekers entering the country. In 1994, also known as the year of the Rafter Crisis, 36,900 immigrants risked travel by sea.^[1]

On January 12, 2017, Barack Obama announced the immediate end of the policy following concerns about the safety of immigrants risking their lives to cross the straits of Florida into the U.S.^[2][3][4] The end of his presidency saw an increase in foreign relations with Cuba, including bilateral agreements with the Cuban government regarding maritime and aeronautical search and rescue protocols for Cuban immigrants entering the country.^[5]