WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is ending a longstanding immigration policy that allows any Cuban who makes it to U.S. soil to stay and become a legal resident, a senior administration official said Thursday. The repeal of the "wet foot, dry foot" policy is effective immediately, according the official. Obama is using an administrative rule change to end the policy. Advertisement Continue reading the main storyThe "wet foot, dry foot" policy was put in place in 1995 by President Bill Clinton as a revision of a more liberal immigration policy. Relations between the United States and Cuba were stuck in a Cold War freeze for decades, but Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro established full diplomatic ties and opened embassies in their capitals in 2015.

Source: New York Times January 12, 2017 21:37 UTC