Cuba has a history of government coupes overthrowing their leaders in power. Fulgencio Batista was a sergeant in the army and was instrumental in three coups that resulted in the ousting of three Cuban presidents, Ramon Grau San Martin replaced Gerardo Machado in 1933 and secondly Carlos Manuel de Cespedes. Batista became chief of staff of the army and was influential in its growth which resulted in him becoming de facto ruler (Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar, 2017). Eventually, in 1940, Batista was elected president and lost re-election in 1944 and left for the United States. In 1949, Batista returned to Cuba and participated in the presidential elections of 1952, where he was in third place. Recognizing that he would lose the election Batista,…show more content… The Mariel Boatlift was the most substantial mass exodus of Cuban immigrants that entered the United States. This mass departure occurred because they were granted permission from the Cuban Government to leave the country to help alleviate their government from dissidents. In the mid-1990’s, the United States and Cuba renegotiated terms to the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966. Cuban immigrants that were intercepted before entering the U.S. would be returned to Cuba without retaliation from the Cuban government and those that reached the United States would be permitted to remain which is called “wet-foot, dry-foot” (Department of Homeland Security, 2017). With his final days in office, President Obama officially ended the “wet-foot, dry-foot” policy. With the end of "wet-foot, dry-foot" Cuban immigrant now was required to enter the United States with a visa and was eligible to receive a green card after being in the U.S. for one year, all others attempting to gain entry into the U.S. without a visa was returned to Cuba. Consequently, Cubans attempting to gain entry into the United States no longer received automatic parole status; their favorable immigration policies had come to an end (Department of Homeland Security, 2017). The Department of Homeland Security (2017), stated that any Cuban nationals intercepted try to enter the United States would be subjected to expedited removal in the same way as immigrants from other countries were
