US-Cuba Thaw: What Will Happen to Cold-War Cuban Migration Policy?
US-Cuba Thaw: What Will Happen to Cold-War Cuban Migration Policy?
“One would expect, with everything else that’s happening [in US-Cuba relations], that migration policy would have to regularize… though this process won’t happen overnight,” comments COA’s Eric Farnsworth.
Washington — For decades, Cubans who made it safely to US soil – often after a perilous crossing of the Florida Straits in a flimsy raft – have benefited from a cold-war-era law that prohibits their deportation and puts them on a Cubans-only fast track to US residency and citizenship.
In other words, under US immigration law there were Cubans – and then there was everybody else.
But now, President Obama’s plan to normalize relations with Cuba after more than five decades of hostility between the two countries is adding momentum to efforts that were already building steam to redo US laws....
However, change in US immigration law toward Cubans seems inevitable if the objective is truly to normalize relations between the two countries, some regional experts say – although no one foresees reform of decades-old policy happening quickly.
“One would expect, with everything else that’s happening [in US-Cuba relations], that migration policy would have to regularize,” says Eric Farnsworth, a former White House adviser on the Americas who is now vice president of the Americas Society-Council of the Americas in Washington. “But it’s been on separate tracks since almost forever,” he adds, “so I wouldn’t expect that process of reforming migration policy to happen overnight....”
