President Obama's decision to end the "wet foot, dry foot" policy could be "bittersweet" to many Cubans in Miami, Cuban expert Dr. Andy Gomez told NBC 6.
"Those lines get longer and longer for Cubans in Miami that recently arrived that want to reunite with their families. This might be a bittersweet moment, because I know a lot of them actually tried to see if they could get their families here," Dr. Gomez said in a phone interview with NBC 6 Thursday. "This basically cuts all of those Cubans coming in, so-called illegally, or by wet foot, dry foot, that were legal once they touched land."
Dr. Gomez said he expected the policy would be ended by President-elect Donald Trump and was surprised President Obama made the move.
"I didn't expect President Obama to do it, I expected President Trump once he was sworn in to do it shortly thereafter," he said. "This a policy, personally, I really thought that need to be done away with and in a way, I think it's a good idea that President Obama went ahead and did this."
Dr. Gomez said the move could have a major effect on those Cubans wishing to come to the U.S.
"We have to wait and see because right now the United States only allows 20,000 visas per year for Cubans that want to come to the United States, we'll have to see whether those visa numbers are going to be increased under the Trump administration," he said. "The sad story of this, you know, is so many Cubans died trying to make it here. This has been a very controversial policy, this is a policy that even the Cuban government wanted the United States to cancel."
