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Illegal Immigration Reform

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Illegal Immigration Reform
On September 30, 1996, President Clinton signed into law the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA). This law contained provisions aimed at reforming both legal and illegal immigration. The IIRIRA had then provided an additional five thousand Border Patrol agents to help out over a five-year period, which had just about doubled the size of the Border Patrol. This new law had also imposed three and ten year bans on the legal entry of undocumented immigrants who had previously been apprehended and deported back to Cuba.

The United States and Cuba have not always been at odds. In the late 1800s, the United States was purchasing 87% of Cuba's exports and had control over most of Cuba’s sugar industry. In
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Therefore, On Oct. 19, 1960, President Eisenhower signed a partial embargo on exports to Cuba, the first step towards the U.S. policy that exists today. Eisenhower ended diplomatic relations with Cuba and closed the US embassy in Havana on Jan. 3, 1961, saying "There is a limit to what the United States in self-respect can endure. That limit has now been reached." The former embassy building would later serve as the site of the US Interests Section (a de facto embassy) opened by President Carter in 1977. (Page 83, History of U.S. Cuba …show more content…
President Carter tried to normalize relations with Cuba by opening the U.S. Interests Section (a de facto embassy) in Havana in 1977. "Immigration Policy (1976 to Present)." In Encyclopedia of U.S. Political History, edited by Richard M. Valelly, vol. 7. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2010. http://library.cqpress.com/usph/eusphv7_215.1.understood the situation best, think the embargo is not working. More than 80% of Cuban Americans that had been surveyed in 2011, said that the embargo has not worked very well or not at all. Even though President Obama eased restrictions related to Cuba in 2009, his support among Cuban Americans in Florida increased from a third of the community in 2008 to more than half in the 2012 presidential election. (Page 55, Cuba

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