Obama ends policy of accepting Cubans who arrive in U.S. without visas

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This has been the policy through Democrat and Republican administrations. It has never been a matter of partisan disagreement. Yesterday, we learned that with nothing but vapors remaining in his presidency, Obama plans to end that policy and return Cuban refugees to the communist hellhole from which they've just escaped:

The Obama administration is ending the “wet foot, dry foot” policy that granted residency to Cubans who arrived in the United States without visas. That’s according to a senior administration official, who said the policy change was effective immediately. The official said the U.S. and Cuba have spent several months negotiating the change, including an agreement from Cuba to allow those turned away from the U.S. to return.

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What the hell? What could possibly be the point of this? With no accompanying action by Congress - since that would obviously never happen - this is strictly an executive order that Trump will be able to instantly reverse as soon as he takes office. What was the point of even negotiating terms with the Cubans knowing that the change would be in place for a mere matter of days? It's not unusual for presidents to hold off on moves they know will be unpopular until they're about to leave office. But this one is as pointless as it is vindictive, unless the point is to burnish Obama's cred with the far left - which loves the communist regime in Havana and hates the people who try to escape and make it to America. But will Trump actually reverse the order? He said in February 2016 that he considers it unfair that Cubans get in easier than people from other nations. And believe it or not, there are some Republicans who agree with the move, including Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona:

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Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) praised the move, saying, "Individuals on both sides of the U.S.-Cuba debate recognize and agree that ending ‘wet foot, dry foot’ is in our national interest…It’s a move that brings our Cuba policy into the modern era while allowing the United States to continue its generous approach to those individuals and refugees with a legitimate claim for asylum." according to USA Today.

If anyone fails to understand why Cuban refugees need this special status, they should look into the history of human rights under the Castro regime. Then again, Cuba is now on the UN's Human Rights Commission, and we all know how much Obama loves the UN. This appears to be little more than Obama's latest pointless giveaway to a despotic regime, with no commensurate benefit coming back to the United States, and certainly nothing good resulting for the long-suffering people of Cuba. If Trump is even thinking about leaving Obama's policy change in place, someone should take him aside and explain to him why we've had it for more than 20 years, and why we need to keep it in place until the communists are gone from Cuba. Dan's new novel, BACKSTOP, is a story of spiritual warfare and baseball. Download it from Amazon here

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