Numbers of Cuban migrants entering the United States across the border with Mexico they double from month to month in 2022 and US authorities estimate that by the end of October 155,000 Cubans will have arrived on American territory.
March, More than 32,000 Cubans have been detained by immigration officials at various points along the border with Mexico, according to unpublished figures from the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Washington Post.
In January, 9,827 Cubans were registered, according to CBP reports, and in February the number rose to 16,550.
Graph showing arrivals of Cubans across the US southern border in 2022 (CBP)
CBP estimates the number at 155,000 Cubans in the current fiscal year. This is the largest number since the Mariel exodus, the Post says, recalling that about 125,000 Cubans arrived during the 1980 sea bridge and another 30,000 Cubans during the 1994 “rafter” crisis.
CBP records show that about 75% of detained Cubans are adults traveling alone.
Many of the new arrivals fly to Nicaragua, which waived visa requirements for Cubans last fall, and then travel overland to Del Rio, Texas, or Yuma, Arizona, where they face US border officials to begin the asylum process.
The newspaper warns that the boom in Cuban migration has been overlooked amid an unprecedented total influx under President Biden, with a record 1.73 million in fiscal 2021, and this year’s total is on track to grow even larger.
The arrival of so many Cubans, the Washington Post says, is straining communities in South Florida and once again acts as an escape valve for the communist authorities Amid potential unrest amid the worst economic crisis to hit the island in decades.
According to preliminary data from The Post, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported just 20 Cubans in the past five months and only 95 in fiscal year 2021. According to ICE data, authorities deported 1,583 Cubans in 2020.
In a statement quoted by the newspaper, the Department of Homeland Security said it is coordinating with the State Department to have “regular discussions with partner countries in the hemisphere on issues related to migration” and “continues to engage with foreign governments to review the.” Improve cooperation with countries that systematically refuse or delay the repatriation of their nationals.”
However, the newspaper adds that DHS did not respond to questions about the Cuban government’s specific restrictions on the return of Cuban migrants.
A smaller number of Cuban migrants, about 750, have reached the United States through other routes in the past six months, including a cancer survivor rescued on a windsurf board off the Florida Keys in late March.
Some Cubans are released at the border on a form of temporary legal status known as humanitarian parole, but others are referred to ICE or US immigration courts to face deportation proceedings. US authorities say they grant humanitarian parole on a case-by-case basis, but have not explained how they make those decisions.