Cuban Immigrants Flow Into The US, Fearing The Rules Will Change

Costa Rica stopped giving out transit visas to Cubans on December 18, arguing that it just couldn’t cope with any more migrants. (Guatemala had earlier rejected a proposal to fly them directly there.) Once they arrive to El Salvador, they will go through Guatemala and head to Mexico, via buses.

No more details were immediately released by the governments of Costa Rica and of Guatemala, which hosted a diplomatic meeting Monday to consider the issue.

The humanitarian transfer will airlift an unspecified number of Cubans the first week of January from Costa Rica to El Salvador, from where they will continue by bus toward Mexico, Costa Rica’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday.

The crisis is rooted in a surge of Cuban migrants seeking to reach the United States by flying to Ecuador and then travelling north by land. Guatemalan Foreign Minister Carlos Morales noted that only 250 Cuban migrants will be flown to El Salvador initially.

Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez emphasized that the agreed-upon solution benefits only the Cubans who are presently in Costa Rican territory with visas. The transfer places the islanders in a prime position to take advantage of the Cuban Adjustment Act and the “wet foot, dry-foot” policy that stems from it. According to that policy, Cubans who set foot on USA soil are automatically granted status, while those captured at sea are repatriated. An estimated 8,000 Cubans are now stuck there. It is still not clear who will foot the bill for the logistics, but subsequent meetings should come up with a solution, said the Mexican government.

It followed an appeal last Sunday by Pope Francis for Central America to end the Cubans’ “humanitarian drama”.

The Cubans are trying to take advantage of this policy, fearing that the thaw in relations between Washington and Havana may bring to an end the preferential treatment given to them.

The number of Cuban migrants seeking entry into the United States has risen sharply from a year ago, after the two countries announced they had mutually agreed to begin restoring relations.

With the US Coast Guard sending back any Cubans intercepted in the waters of the Florida Straits, Cubans increasingly have sought to make the overland journey through Central America and Mexico.