As most of the discussion of immigration within the GOP has focused on deploying more border patrol agents and building a wall along Mexico, Republican candidates have spent far less time discussing changes regarding the nation’s long standing policy on Cuban immigrants.

The United States currently gives Cuban migrants special treatment enjoyed by no other group of immigrants. Under the so-called “wet-foot, dry-foot policy,” which was initiated in 1995 as an amendment to the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, any Cuban migrant who makes it to U.S. shores immediately qualifies for permanent legal resident status and is set on a path to U.S. citizenship. Any Cuban migrant who is apprehended in the water between the two nations must be sent back to Cuba.

As relations between the U.S. and the communist country continue to normalize, Cuban migrants fear that the preferential treatment they have enjoyed upon entering the U.S. will soon come to an end.

As Latin Post previously reported, the last three months of 2015 saw 1,536 Cubans attempting to sail to the U.S.. According to the Pew Research Center, over 43,000 Cubans entered the U.S. at ports of entry in the 2015 fiscal year.

Conservative Candidates on “Wet Foot, Dry Foot” Policy

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who has been adamant about dismantling the Obama administration’s more open policy toward Cuba, has expressed interest in modifying the Cuban Adjustment Act.

As reported by The Associated Press, Rubio described the current policy as hard to defend.

"When you have people who are coming and a year and a day later are traveling back to Cuba 15 times a year, 12 times, 10 times, eight times, that doesn't look like someone who is fleeing oppression," said Rubio. "And other people turn to us and say, 'What's the justification for this special status?' That's a very legitimate point."

Rubio said it was a major problem that Cuban migrants enjoy the benefits of America while continually returning to Cuba. As Latin Post previously reported, in January the candidate filed a Senate bill called the Cuban Immigration Work Opportunity Act that would seek to remove special benefits from Cuban immigrants in the U.S.

"It is outrageous whenever the American people's generosity is exploited. It is particularly outrageous when individuals who claim to be fleeing repression in Cuba are welcomed and allowed to collect federal assistance based on their plight, only to return often to the very place they claimed to be fleeing," said Rubio.

Fellow Cuban-American candidate Ted Cruz supports keeping the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act intact just the way it is. As the Miami Herald reports, Cruz sees the preservation of policy as an admission that the U.S. still views Cuba as a dangerous Marxist power.

“The CAA is a recognition of the oppressive communist regime in Cuba that engages in political repression, torture and murder,” he said. “I look forward to the day when the Cuban Adjustment Act is no longer necessary because a free Cuba will have returned.”

Donald Trump, who has built his campaign around a tough anti-immigration stance regarding Mexicans and Muslims, has revealed that he feels the “wet foot, dry foot” policy is not fair to immigrants who are not Cuban.

As reported by the Tampa Bay Times, Trump said, "You know, we have a system now for bringing people into the country, and what we should be doing is we should be bringing people who are terrific people who have terrific records of achievement, accomplishment. … You have people that have been in the system for years (waiting to immigrate to America), and it's very unfair when people who just walk across the border, and you have other people that do it legally."

An Outdated Policy?

The immigration policy offered to Cubans is based upon Cold War politics.

Immediately after Marxist leader Fidel Castro took control of Havana in 1959, Cubans who reached the U.S. without immigration visas were allowed to stay. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson all admitted Cubans on temporary visas or visa waivers. In 1966, Congress passed the Cuban Adjustment Act, which entitled Cubans who reached the U.S. a temporary parole status, which could then become permanent legal residency and then citizenship.

Susan Eckstein, a professor of international relations and sociology at Boston University, explained in a piece for Reuters that the special treatment offered to Cuban migrants was intended to win over Cuba’s best and brightest. She added the policy was designed to show Cubans' preference for American capitalism over their home country.

Cuba blames the U.S. and its decades-old immigration policies regarding Cuban migrants for the increase in Cubans trying to make the often dangerous journey to America. In 2015, Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Relations stated that the U.S. policy contradicted the efforts to renew relations between the countries.

As reported in The Associated Press, the Cuban statement read, "This policy encourages illegal emigration from Cuba to the United States and constitutes a violation of the letter and spirit of the migration accords."

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