Cuban migrants are arriving in the United States in the highest number seen in four decades, with about 150,000 expected to arrive this year, according to US officials, as the economic and political situation on the island grows increasingly desperate.
For decades, Cubans trying to flee repression, food insecurity and economic devastation used precarious boats to reach US shores, risking their lives.
Now they arrive on foot, with their escape aided by Nicaragua, which lifted the visa requirement for Cubans late last year, giving them a foothold in Central America to travel overland via Mexico to the US. . US officials accused Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega of enacting this policy to pressure Washington to lift sanctions on his country.
The increase in Cubans trying to cross the southern US border represents only a part of the migrants that are burdening border authorities, as unauthorized crossings continue to increase under the Biden administration. In March, there was a two-decade record for people caught crossing illegally in a single month: 221,303. Since October – the start of fiscal 2022 for the US government – ​​nearly 79,000 Cubans have arrived at the country’s southern border, more than in the two previous years combined, according to Customs and Border Protection data.
In March, more than 32,000 Cubans arrived at the border, most of them traveling first by plane to Nicaragua and then by land to the United States, according to a State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to negotiations in progress with the Cuban government.
The official said visa-free travel to Nicaragua is encouraging migrants to use all their savings to pay smugglers for the trip and added that some are being trafficked by criminal groups. Public discontent in Cuba has been simmering since mass protests erupted in July last year across the country over escalating inflation, chronic shortages of food and medicine and frequent power outages.
During the Obama administration, the US significantly eased restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba, but they were resurrected by the Donald Trump administration, dealing a severe economic blow. The demonstrations took the Communist government in Havana by surprise, which responded by imposing one of the heaviest crackdowns in decades. More than 700 Cubans were accused of participating in the protests, including some teenagers who received 30-year prison terms.
Deteriorating political and economic conditions fuel the growing exodus.
The Nicaraguan government lifted the visa requirement for Cuba in November, opening an overland route for migrants hesitant to embark on the perilous sea journey to the US coast.
Since then, the number of flights from Havana to Managua has soared. “We’re seeing governments try to use migration as a weapon, because they know it causes political disruption in recipient countries,” said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a research institute in Washington.
Selee and other analysts said Nicaragua was likely using the Cubans to pressure the US to lift sanctions against Ortega and his inner circle. The move has been compared to Belarus’ cancellation of visa requirements for Iraqis last year, easing their entry into the European Union, in retaliation for sanctions imposed over the country’s contested election.
“They’re not fools,” Selee said. “The government of Managua knew that this would force the US to negotiate at some point.” Still, it is unclear whether more flexible migration rules would produce any change in US policy. The Nicaraguan government did not respond to questions sent by the New York Times. The Cuban regime also did not respond to requests for comment.
Many Cubans are desperate to get out, even if it means going into debt to make a dangerous trip. They say they sell everything they own — houses, clothes and furniture — and take out high-interest loans to raise the thousands of dollars they need to get to the United States, even though the average salary on the island is roughly $46. (R$ 230) per month.
Zenen Hernández, 35, was one of 414 Cubans who crossed the Rio Grande into the US on April 5, out of a total of 1,488 migrants who crossed that stretch of border illegally that day. “Food and medicine are in short supply,” Hernández said, describing conditions in Cuba. “It’s just poverty.”
The Cuban government blames the decades-long US embargo for its economic woes.
The economy there was weak before the pandemic, but Hernández survived by selling bread and chips. In the summer of 2020, the situation became untenable. When Nicaragua opened its borders to Cubans, he decided it was time to leave. “I had to sell my house,” he said.
The cost was high: US$ 16,000 for the flight to Nicaragua and the 2,880-kilometer journey to reach the United States – often on foot – through the jungles, mountains and rivers of Central America and Mexico. Along the way, migrants are routinely threatened and extorted by the police and pursued by criminal organizations who kidnap and beat them for ransom.
When Hernández was asked to describe his journey, he gasped as he recalled the journey of suffering. “I have no words,” he said. “They rob you – the police, the smugglers. They rob you.”
Repressed demand for legal crossings is another factor that increases migration. In 2017, the Trump administration reduced staffing at the U.S. embassy in Cuba after a series of unexplained health problems, which became known as “Havana syndrome”, affected its staff.
The withdrawal forced Cubans to apply for visas from the US embassy in Guyana, a very expensive trip for many. The measure also barred Americans from fulfilling a pledge to hand over 20,000 immigrant visas to Cubans annually, part of a 1994 agreement to provide a legal path and discourage irregular migration. This week, the US embassy in Havana will conduct the first interviews for immigrant visa applicants since 2017, according to an official.
The first high-level talks between Cuba and the United States since 2018 took place in late April, dedicated to restoring regular migration channels. The Cuban government has asked Washington to maintain the agreement to issue 20,000 immigrant visas annually; the US government has requested that Havana begin to accept Cuban deportees who arrived illegally.
The US official said the two sides are expected to meet again within six months.
“If the negotiations are successful, they will revert to a formula that worked before, providing a real and viable legal channel for Cubans to come to the US, in exchange for the deportation of those who do not use the legal channel,” said Selee of the Migration Policy Institute.
“Migration is a rare point of cooperation between the two countries that really works.”
