Cuba says United States has deported 117 Cuban migrants since policy shift

[February 18, 2017]  HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba said on Friday the United States had deported 117 migrants back to the island nation since ending its policy granting automatic residency to almost every Cuban who reached U.S. soil as part of the normalization of relations.

Those deported included two people who were returned on Friday on the first flight chartered specifically for the deportation of Cuban migrants since the policy shift, Cuba's ruling Communist Party newspaper Granma wrote. The earlier deportees were taken back on commercial planes or boat.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama repealed the special immigration policy for Cubans days before turning the White House over to Donald Trump.

Cuban authorities had long sought its end, arguing that the promise of U.S. residency was fuelling people-trafficking and encouraging dangerous journeys.

The move however dashed the hopes of many who had been hoping to fulfill their American Dream and left hundreds of Cubans seeking a new life stranded halfway on their journey.

Cubans stranded in Mexico stand outside the border bridge after Washington repealed a measure granting automatic residency to virtually every Cuban who arrived in the United States, in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico January 25, 2017. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

Since the policy shift, more than 680 Cuban "irregular migrants" have been deported in total from various countries, Granma wrote, including more than 400 from Mexico, 117 from the Bahamas and 39 from the Cayman Islands.

(Reporting by Sarah Marsh and Nelson Acosta; Editing by Michael Perry)

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