Wet Foot, Dry Foot Policy Ends: Obama To Stop Granting Cubans Residency

The Obama administration is making headlines on their final days in office ending the "wet foot, dry foot" policy that gave Cubans fleeing their country U.S. residency.

The news comes from a senior administration official that has chosen to stay anonymous, the AP reports.

The source said that the U.S. and Cuba had been negotiating the policy change for several months now. Also discussed was an agreement from the Caribbean island to allow those people to returned that were turned away from the United States.

The "wet foot, dry foot" policy was initiated 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 Cuba. Under the policy, when a Cuban migrant is apprehended in the water between the two countries, he is considered to have “wet feet” and is sent back home. A Cuban who makes it to the U.S. shore, however, can claim “dry feet” and qualify for legal permanent resident status and U.S. citizenship.