Last week, Obama ordered the Department of Homeland Security to end the policy immediately and remove unauthorized Cuban nationals from the United States who do not qualify for humanitarian relief.
"The policy that we had in place with wet foot, dry foot, which treated Cuban emigres completely different… was a carry-over of an old way of thinking that didn’t make sense in this day and age, particularly as we’re opening up travel between the two countries," Obama stated.
In December 2014, Obama announced the United States would begin to normalize relations with Cuba after more than 50 years of non-engagement.
However, despite increasingly stronger ties between the two nations, the decades-old trade embargo on Cuba remains in place and can only be lifted by the US Congress.
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