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Hundreds of thousands of Cubans desperate to leave the island’s economy and reunite with their families in the US, but unable to obtain visas in their own country, are forced to fly to Central America and make the tortuous journey north, or navigate the Florida Straits in rickety ships. .
More than 500 Cuban immigrants have arrived in the Florida Keys since last weekend. It’s a perilous 160-kilometer journey on a frequent boat, but more Cubans are taking the risk amid a deepening political and economic crisis.
“I would rather die to achieve my dream and help my family. The situation in Cuba is not very good,” Jeiler del Toro Diaz told The Miami Herald shortly after arriving ashore on Tuesday in Key Largo.
Coast Guard tried to interdict Cuban migrants at sea and return. Since the US government’s new fiscal year began on October 1, about 4,200 have been stopped at sea – or about 43 days. This is up from 17 per day in the previous fiscal year and just two per day during the 2020-21 fiscal year at the peak of the pandemic.
But an unknown number have arrived and will remain.
Dry Tortugas National Park, a group of seven islands 110 kilometers west of Key West, remained closed to visitors on Wednesday as the US evacuates migrants who came ashore earlier in the week. Officials do not know when they will reopen.
In Marathon, about 72 kilometers northeast of Key West, about two dozen migrants were held in a fenced area outside a Customs and Border Protection station where tents had been set up to provide shade.
Ramon Raul Sanchez with the Cuban-American group Movimiento Democracia went to the Keys to check the situation. He told the AP that he met a group of 22 Cubans who had just arrived. He stood on the main road, waiting for the US authorities to take him. Officials Sanchez and Keys said the Joe Biden administration needs a more coordinated response.
“There is a migration and humanitarian crisis, and the president must respond by helping local authorities,” Sanchez said.
Cubans are also among those trying to enter the southern border
Grappling with the biggest flood of Cuban migrants in decades, the US reopened a long-closed legal route on Wednesday by resuming all visa services at its embassy in Havana.
In addition to the growing economic struggles due to the pandemic, Cubans have also noted the government’s harsh response to the island’s rare protests in 2021, which included heavy prison sentences for minors.
Some also arrive by land, flying to Nicaragua, then traveling north through Honduras and Guatemala to Mexico. In the 2021-22 fiscal year, 220,000 Cubans were stopped at the US-Mexico border, nearly six times as many as the previous year.
In late December, US authorities reported stopping Cubans 34,675 times along the Mexican border in November, up from 28,848 in October.
Callan Garcia, a Florida immigration attorney, said most Cubans who reach U.S. soil tell Border Patrol agents they can’t find enough work at home. He was then marked “expedited for removal” for having entered the country illegally. But that does not mean they will actually be removed soon, or ever.
Because the US and Cuba do not have formal diplomatic relations, the American government has no way to return them. Cuban was released but given an order requiring him to periodically contact federal immigration authorities to confirm his address and status. They are allowed to obtain work permits, driver’s licenses and Social Security numbers.
Garcia said many remain without official status throughout their lives; some Cubans who arrived in the 1980 Mariel boatlift are still designated “expedited for removal.”
“He’s just here with a floating order to get rid of what he can’t do,” Garcia said.
WATCH | Title 42 expiration plans delayed by court decision:
The US Supreme Court has granted a last-minute extension to Title 42, the pandemic-era border restrictions denying asylum to migrants first introduced under former president Donald Trump.
Visa processing resumed at the Havana Embassy after several migration talks and visits by US officials in recent months. The latest small steps are not far removed from relations under President Barack Obama, who eased decades of sanctions during his tenure, many of which were rescinded by his successor Donald Trump.
Under Biden, the US has lifted some restrictions on shipping goods and family travel from Miami to Cuba.
Title 42 limbo
The Biden administration has been heavily criticized by Republicans on the immigration front, but has been besieged by court rulings.
The Supreme Court upheld the Title 42 limit, after Biden acted to end it last spring. Republican state officials demanded a response.
Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma:
Title 42 remains in place until the Supreme Court issues a ruling, which gives the Biden administration more time to develop a plan to secure the border.
The Biden admin needs to use this time wisely – not waste it like they’ve been doing for the past 8 months.
Title 42 was invoked to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in 2020, but Americans continue to live as the coronavirus develops. The order allows most migrants to be deported, encouraging repeated crossings between border points, critics say.
Biden has yet to make systemic changes to manage the expected increase in migrants seeking asylum once health restrictions are lifted.
Immigration and fentanyl production originating from Mexican laboratories and reaching the US and Canada is expected to be a topic when Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are hosted by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador during a two-day summit starting Monday.
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