More immigrants for the U.S

According to the Washington Post, fourteen Cubans who were sent back to their homeland by the Coast Guard after their boat landed at an abandoned U.S. bridge in the Florida Keys are now allowed to return to the U.S. This will happen only if Fidel Castro allows them to leave, however. The U.S. government will issue visas to the Cubans, but there is still no guarantee that Cuba will permit the group, which includes two children, to leave the island. Under the U.S. "wet-foot, dry-foot" policy, most Cubans who reach U.S. soil are allowed to stay, while those intercepted at sea are generally returned home.The group of Cubans arrived at the bridge in January but were sent back because the bridge was no longer connected to U.S. soil. A U.S judge decided last week that they rightfully reached the shore and should be able to live here.

Elián González was at the center of a heated custody and immigration battle in 2000 between the Cuban and American governments, his father, his Miami relatives, and the Cuban American community of Miami. On April 22, 2000, the seizure of six-year-old Elián by federal agents drew the criticism of many in the Cuban-American community and presidential candidates Al Gore and George Bush. However, after the Miami relatives' appeals met several rejections by 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, and a refusal to hear the case by the US Supreme Court, Elián González returned to Cuba with his father, Juan Miguel González, on June 28, 2000.