680 Cubans deported as US enforces new immigration policy

About 680 Cubans have been returned to the island from various countries since then-President Barack Obama ended a longstanding immigration policy that allowed any Cuban who made it to US soil to stay and become a legal resident, state television reported on Friday.

Cuba’s government had long sought the repeal of the “wet foot, dry foot” policy, which it said encouraged Cubans to risk dangerous voyages and drained the country of professionals.

The Jan.12 decision by Washington to end it followed months of negotiations focused in part on getting Havana to agree to take back people who had arrived in the US.

Cuban state television said late on Friday that the returnees came from countries including the United States, Mexico and the Bahamas, and were sent back to the island between Jan.12 and Feb.17.

It did not break down which countries the 680 were sent back from.

The repeal of the “wet foot, dry foot” policy was Obama’s final move before leaving office in the rapprochement with the communist-run country that he and Cuban President Castro began in December 2014.

The surprise decision left hundreds of Cubans stranded in transit in South and Central America.

Before he assumed the presidency on Jan.20, Donald Trump criticized the detente between the US and Cuba, tweeting that he might “terminate” it.