hered in a new era of refugee and immigration policy toward Cubans. The collapse of the Soviet Union also meant the cessation of aid to its satellites. Without Soviet aid, conditions in Cuba steadily deteriorated, and the people of Cuba took to the streets in protest. In 1994, Castro answered the uprising by allowing Cubans to leave the country unmolested, and about thirty thousand obliged by taking boats to the United States. However, prior to the mass exodus, the United States policy towards Cuba was beginning to: "First, with the end of the Cold War, there was less need to embarrass the communist regime in Cuba, although the U.S. maintained its embargo against the island. Second, there was continuing public pressure to limit immigration. Finally, it became apparent to some U.S. officials Castro would continue to use refugee flows to rid the country of opponents or undesirable elements" (Crisp, 218).In addition to the aforementioned reasons, the United States was also concerned with the safety of the Cuban refugees at sea. By fall of 1994, the United States and Cuba agreed to redirect the flow of people from Cuba through "safe, legal, and orderly channels". Thirty thousand Cubans were intercepted at sea, returned to the U.S. navel base at Guantanamo Bay, and eventually allowed to enter the United States in accordance with the agreement. The United States and Cuba agreement had four points: the U. S. agreed to stop automatically accepting Cuban refugees, Cuba pledged to discourage unsafe methods of departure, both countries agreed to take effective action against the hijackers of Cuban aircraft and ships, and the U.S. vowed to issue twenty thousand visas to Cubans annually. In compliance with the first point of the agreement, the United States would return Cuban refugees who were picked up at sea if they could not identify a legitimate reason that they would be persecuted after their return to Cuba. Cuba was then under an obligat...
