More than 57 thousand Cubans have received permission to travel to the United States through humanitarian means between January and October, according to official figures from the United States Department of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), released this Tuesday.
In the case of Cubans who have been vetted and approved for entry into the United States through that route, 55,568 have reached US soil.
Until the end of October, a total of 269,744 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans legally arrived on humanitarian parole in the United States.
Of these four nationalities favored by immigration benefits, Cubans remain in third place, with 57,243 permits issued.
The data represent an increase of 5,190 Cubans in relation to last month’s report, which puts the number of approved people on the island until the end of September at 52,053.
First among Cubans are Haitians, with 107,697 approved, of which 99,110 have traveled; Venezuelans received 77,021 authorizations, and 71,801 completed the trip. In last place are the Nicaraguans, with 48,840 permits issued and 43,267 cases completed.
The approval of the travel permit is not an endorsement for the automatic delivery of the parole before the CBP authorities, who have the power to authorize entry into the country.
In May, the US government introduced changes to the application selection process, combining random approval of cases with attention to requests with longer waiting times.
However, uncertainty continues for thousands of parole applicants with financial sponsors after a court order issued on August 31 ordered that the decision on the permanence of this program be postponed until the end of the year.
The Cubans are running
Another piece of information released by the Department of Customs and Border Protection on Tuesday shows that a total of 18,018 Cubans arrived by sea and land in the United States illegally in October, which proves that the island’s migration crisis continues unabated.
This is the highest number since December last year.
28 entered through the northern border (Canada) and 12,495 through the southern border (Mexico). The rest of the migrants—more than 6 thousand—arrived by sea through the Strait of Florida.
It added that the fiscal year 2023 closed on September 30 with 200,287 applications from Cubans, 24 thousand less than the previous period, when they crossed the border with 224,607 migrants on the island.
The statistics released on Tuesday are a clear indication that the Cuban immigration crisis continues to rise.
