Fleeing Cuban migrants arrive in Florida, overwhelming officials

More than 500 have come ashore but lack of formal diplomatic relations means US has no way to repatriate them

Recently arrived migrants wait in a garage area of the US Customs and Border Protection - Marathon Border Patrol Station in Florida. AP

Recently arrived migrants wait in a garage area of the U. S. Customs and Border Protection - Marathon Border Patrol Station, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023, in Marathon, Fla. More than 500 Cuban immigrants have come ashore in the Florida Keys since the weekend, the latest in a large and increasing number who are fleeing the communist island. (AP Photo / Wilfredo Lee)

A container with beans and rice, clothes and an inner tube in a recently arrived migrant boat. AP

Some migrants arrived on Florida's shores in this boat now in Islamorada. AP

A container with beans and rice lies abandoned in a migrant boat. AP

More than 500 Cuban immigrants have come ashore in the Florida Keys since the weekend. AP

Children were among those who recently arrived. AP

The US embassy in Cuba reopened visas services in the country on January 4. AP

A young boy plays with recently arrived migrants. AP

US President Joe Biden will address immigration later this week. AP

More than 500 Cuban immigrants have come ashore in the Florida Keys since the weekend, the latest in a large and increasing number who are fleeing the communist island and stretching the US border agencies on land and at sea.

It is a dangerous 160km trip in often rickety boats and unknown thousands having perished over the years.

But more Cubans are taking the risk amid deepening and compounding political and economic crises at home.

A smaller number of Haitians are also fleeing their country’s economic and political woes and arriving by boat in Florida.

The Coast Guard tries to intercept Cuban migrants at sea and return them. Since the US government’s fiscal year began on October 1, about 4,200 have been stopped at sea, or about 43 a day.

That was up from 17 a day in the previous fiscal year and just two a day in 2020-2021.

But an unknown number have made it to land and will probably get to stay.

“I would prefer to die to reach my dream and help my family," Jeiler del Toro Diaz told The Miami Herald shortly after arriving on shore on Tuesday in Key Largo.

"The situation in Cuba is not very good."

The Department of Homeland Security said it would be issuing a statement on Wednesday, but has not yet done so.

Dry Tortugas National Park, a group of seven islands 110km west of Key West, remained closed to visitors on Wednesday as the US moved migrants who arrived there earlier in the week.

Normally, about 255 tourists a day arrive by boat and seaplane to tour the islands and Fort Jefferson, which was built 160 years ago. Officials did not know when it would reopen.

Ramon Raul Sanchez, with the Cuban-American group Movimiento Democracia, went to the Keys on Wednesday to check on the situation.

Mr Sanchez said he met 22 Cubans who had just arrived and were standing along the main road, waiting for US authorities to pick them up.

He and Keys officials said the administration of US President Joe Biden needed a more co-ordinated response.

“There is a migration and humanitarian crisis, and it is necessary for the president to respond by helping local authorities,” Mr Sanchez said.

Cubans are willing to take the risk because those who make it to US soil almost always get to stay, even if their legal status is murky.

They also arrive by land, flying to Nicaragua, then travelling north through Honduras and Guatemala into Mexico.

In the 2021-2022 fiscal year, 220,000 Cubans were stopped at the US-Mexican border, almost six times as many as the previous year.

Callan Garcia, a Florida immigration lawyer, said most Cubans who reached the US told Border Patrol agents that they could not find adequate work at home, so they are flagged “expedited for removal” as having entered the country illegally.

But the connotation that they will be removed quickly or at all is misleading. Because the US and Cuba do not have formal diplomatic relations, the American government has no way to repatriate them.

Cubans are released but given an order that requires them to contact federal immigration authorities periodically to confirm their address and status.

They are allowed to get work permits, driver’s licences and Social Security numbers, but cannot apply for permanent residency or citizenship.

Mr Garcia said that could last for the rest of their lives. Some Cubans who came in the 1980 Mariel boatlift are still designated “expedited for removal”.

“They’re just sort of here with a floating order for removal that can’t be executed,” said Mr Garcia, who worked for Catholic Legal Services before going into private practice.

A small percentage of Cuban immigrants tell Border Patrol agents they are fleeing political persecution and are “paroled", he said.

Under the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, they are released until they can appear before an immigration judge to make their case. If approved, they can receive permanent residency and later apply for citizenship.

But Haitian immigrants are almost always sent back, even though political persecution and violence is rife there, along with severe economic hardship.

“That inconsistency has something that immigrant rights advocates have always pointed to,” Mr Garcia said.