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According to official sources, more than 3,500 Cubans have been turned away by United States immigration authorities at that country’s border with Mexico since October 2022.
According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data cited by El Nuevo Herald, a total of 3,522 migrants from the island have not been admitted to US territory since the beginning of this year as of October 1.
The vast majority of them attempted to enter the United States through Laredo, Texas, the release said, noting that El Paso, Texas, Tucson, Arizona, and San Diego, California, are other border posts where migrants are coming visiting regularly.
The number of Cubans turned back at the southern border is significant, although, as El Herald reminds, “it is lower in relation to the 15,410 in the entire fiscal year of 2017.”
The American media also points out that “the decline in the influx of Cuban immigrants has been evident since former US President Barack Obama (2009-2017) repealed the “wet foot/dry foot” policy enacted in 1995 in January 2017. “.
Since then, he adds, all Cuban migrants “must arrive in the country with legal documents, whether by sea, air or land, and if they wish, they must seek political asylum with the argument of ‘credible fear of return.’ to Cuba.” Wait months. “Detained in the United States without the certainty that the request will be granted.”
Especially since the repeal of the so-called Title 42 a few months ago, US authorities have insisted that under the current Title 8, those who cross the border illegally can be prosecuted, deported and barred from entering the country for five years.
In addition to the more than 3,500 Cubans turned back at the border during the current fiscal year, more than 6,800 raftsmen from the island were intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard during that period.
In order not to stop the massive influx of Cubans into its territory, which in 2022 meant the entry of around 300,000 irregular migrants from the island to the United States, the Biden administration included Cuba in the humanitarian parole program established last January, from which Haitians, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans also benefit.
According to a statement from United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), more than 181,000 people were admitted at the end of July, including about 41,000 from Cuba.
More than 41,000 Cubans have been paroled on humanitarian grounds
As the North American authorities emphasized, this program “significantly reduced irregular migration.” Evidence of this is that encounters between ports of entry along the border with Mexico fell by 27% in July compared to the same month last year.
However, although the government has repeatedly defended it, the parole has provoked criticism from people from the beneficiary communities themselves, especially the Cuban one, who consider the previous approvals as well as the mechanism and pace of approval to be inadequate.
This program is also in the crosshairs of the Republican Party, which has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the states where it governs to stop its implementation and is currently being litigated in Texas.
Against this background, independent media and unofficial sources report a renewed increase in the number of Cubans leaving the island via Nicaragua or other countries to reach the US border and enter the North American country. .
A few days ago, the US authorities announced the resumption of the issuance of five-year, multiple-entry B2 tourist visas for Cuban citizens, the issuance of which had been suspended since 2019.
However, the US Embassy in Havana itself has indicated that it does not currently process these non-immigrant visas for tourist travel, except in some exceptional cases, requiring interested parties to apply for and process them in a third country.
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