Although US authorities have managed to control the flow of Cubans across the Mexican border, arrivals of rafters through the Miami area experienced a new peak of 5,929 last April, according to official figures.
Data disclosed this Thursday by the Department of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) indicates that arrivals of Cubans by sea to Florida’s shores remain high without significant change, and at the end of the first seven months has already added up to 22,530. Fiscal Year 2023 (FY2023).
With the gradual closing of options to follow the so-called “Central American route” and enter from any point on the Mexican border, arrivals in South Florida have increased by 476 percent since December, when 1,245 Cubans arrived.
The number of rafters making landfall in Florida during April is the highest it has been in three years, indicating that Cuban migration is not stopping and that the maritime boundary remains porous despite enormous efforts by coastal authorities.
However, it is expected that the tough measures implemented after the suspension of Title 42 last week may give a radical turn to the situation.
The United States government is brutally closing its doors to all immigrants who arrive by sea or are caught trying, including Cubans, and will be subjected to expedited deportation proceedings. Detainees will be automatically disqualified from selecting humanitarian parole benefits in the immediate future.
“People must understand that there will be no irregular or illegal ways to enter the United States,” a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official told CyberCuba. “Asylum procedures must be carried out in an orderly manner through appointments and those who attempt to reach the border without following established rules can be quickly expelled.”
The source acknowledged that the flow of Cubans and other nationalities through the straits of Florida still represented “a complex situation”, but indicated that it would be determined to prevent illegal entry by sea.
The group of Cubans who managed to enter through the coast of Florida also has an alarming number of interceptions on the high seas during fiscal year 2023: 6,679 were captured, the highest rate since the 1994 rafters crisis.
The alarms are at full power. This Wednesday, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) said that in conjunction with the Special National Security Force for the Southeast District, it will increase its presence in the air and water to detect and prevent the entry of immigrants into the country.
“Our sea borders are closed. It is imperative that family and friends share this with loved ones in Cuba, Haiti, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic,” said USCG Captain Benjamin Golightly, commander of Operation Vigilant Sentry.
Golightly warned that those caught would be immediately returned to their country of origin or the place from where the journey began.
“In addition, illegal entry or attempting to reach the United States by sea will result in ineligibility for the humanitarian parole process, which benefits Cuban and Haitian nationals,” the official stressed.
Golightly’s statements complemented a recent report on the repatriation of 169 people in Cuba and the Bahamas who were stopped on nine separate trips from those two countries.
The week has been trying for the immigration officers. The head of the USBP in the Miami Sector, Walter N. According to Slosser, on Thursday morning, United States Border Patrol (USBP) agents detained 23 Cubans who managed to disembark in a rustic boat through Islamorada.
“The immigrants have been taken into federal custody and will be placed in removal proceedings,” Slosser said on Twitter.
The aggressive crackdown by DHS agencies at the land border is yielding clear results after the Title 42 health order expired just one week later.
According to statements by Blas Núñez-Neto, DHS Undersecretary of Homeland Security for Border Policy and Immigration, the United States has already deported thousands of Cubans, Venezuelans, and Nicaraguans to Mexico since the implementation of the new policy.
The official did not give details of removals based on nationality, but indicated that since May 12, the Border Patrol has detained an average of 4,400 immigrants a day and fewer than 4,000 in the past two days.
Before Title 42 was repealed, the average number of daily entries across the border was over 10,000 people.
“I want to emphasize once again that it is still too early to make any definitive conclusions about where these trends will go in the coming days and weeks, but we are closely monitoring the situation at our border and in Mexico and in fact on transit routes. Let’s continue to monitor the time. ”, Núñez-Neto said in a virtual meeting with the press.
For this reason, figures from the latest DHS/CBP report should change substantially over the next two months if southern border controls can be stabilized and asylum application processing through CBP One Application is expanded.
- A total of 1,614 Cubans were processed last month at points along the Mexican border, marking a 19 percent increase from March, when 1,315 entered.
- For all border points – land or sea – the number of Cuban arrivals rose to 9,008, with 2,191 more people than last March.
- Since last October 1, when FY2023 began, 143,926 Cuban immigrants have arrived in the United States, 116,156 of them through the Mexican border.
- 3,759 were expunged under Title 42, arguing pandemic restrictions.
- 400,781 have entered the country since Joe Biden’s arrival in the White House.
- More than 24,000 have been approved to travel under the financially sponsored humanitarian parole process, and more than 22,000 of them have already entered the United States.
Other updated data from a late April CBP report on Cuban irregular immigration statistics to the United States show that:
- A total of 1,614 Cubans were processed last month at points along the Mexican border, marking a 19 percent increase from March, when 1,315 entered.
- For all border points – land or sea – the number of Cuban arrivals rose to 9,008, with 2,191 more people than last March.
- Since last October 1, when FY2023 began, 143,926 Cuban immigrants have arrived in the United States, 116,156 of them through the Mexican border.
- 3,759 were fired under Title 42, arguing the restrictions of the pandemic.
- 400,781 have entered the country since Joe Biden’s arrival in the White House.
- More than 24,000 have been approved to travel under the financially sponsored humanitarian parole process, and more than 22,000 of them have already entered the United States.
