Borchers wrote @ May 22, 2009 at 1:50 pm

This wikipedia site details the policy of wet foot/dry foot and how that policy evolved.

Essentially, the policy amended the earlier Cold War era Cuban Adjustment Act, which allowed any Cuban who left the island immediate, legal entry and automatic residency after one year (citizenship in 5) Thus, Cubans who were interdicted in open waters were brought to the US for immigration. (Also, Cuba often refused to accept migrants, calling them traitors and exposing them to certain penal retribution.)

Wet Foot/Dry Foot amended the policy to state that the Ajustment Act would only be applied to Cubans who were found on dry US territory. Thus, if you were in the sea, on a boat, or even on the coast with “wet feet”, you would be “repatriated” back to Cuba (if you could not prove political/religious assylum). This was even extended famously to an abandoned bridge in the Keys that was not connected to land (anymore), where a boat of refugees was dropped off by a human smuggler. (The case was overturned by the Courts and bridges are now “dry.”)

The immigration policy was changed by Clinton in 1994, in response to fears that another mass exodus would be allowed by Castro (similar to the Mariel Flotilla), increased smuggling, and to increasing conflicts between escaping Cubans and Cuban military. The US had stopped and was housing over 30,000 refugees in Guantanamo (before Iraq!)and needed to resolve the issue. The new policy was supposed to create 20k visa through a lottery, an agreement not to punish or criminalize migration and ensure safe immigration.

It has reduced the number of refugees but not the issues of safety or freedom to migrate.