Cuba’s coastal cities of Matanzas and Cienfuegos each have around 177,000 residents. That is also the astonishing number of Cubans that U.S. immigration authorities have stopped at the country’s borders from last October to June, an exodus already the size of a major Cuban city that is not showing signs of abating.
A
majority of the 177,848 recorded encounters with Cubans at the borders
nationwide in that period happened at the southern border with Mexico. But
Cubans who had no money or help from relatives to afford land trips that
sometimes cross through half the continent are taking an even more risky route
by sea.
On the
island, protests are now common, a reality almost unthinkable just a few years
ago. People have grown tired of the precarious conditions of life, with food
and medicine shortages and, lately, daily blackouts. As government repression
increases, many are just trying to leave, almost naturally, to the U.S., where
relatives and friends could lend a hand.
For the
most part, the exodus has been quietly playing outside the spotlight of Florida
politics. But controversy followed recent comments by Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette
Nuñez — a Cuban-American Republican from Miami — who appeared to suggest
Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis would favor busing “illegal” immigrants, including
Cubans coming through the border, to other states.
Her
office tried to walk back the comments, arguing she was not referring to Cuban
migrants because they were fleeing a dictatorship and had grounds to claim
asylum.
But
referring to Cuban migrants — or many others of different nationalities —
released into the country as “illegals” is more about politics than immigration
law.
“It is a
misconception,” said David Claros, the managing attorney for the Church World
Service’s South Florida legal department, which provides low-cost legal
immigration representation.
In a
nutshell, for many migrants, including Cubans, a final decision on their legal
status does not come immediately after reaching the U.S. border, but could even
take years, during which they are legally authorized to stay and work in the
country, he said.
Cubans
stopped at the border or who made landfall from the sea are deemed
“inadmissible,” a term used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to process
people who try to come to the U.S. without visas. Border Patrol agents
apprehend some because they are crossing between the official points of entry,
an infraction of immigration law.
But
border authorities do not usually criminally prosecute Cubans for crossing the
border. Instead, because they pass the bar of a “credible fear” interview, in
which they state fear of retaliation or prosecution if sent back to Cuba, the
island’s nationals are usually put into deportation proceedings, formally
called “removal proceedings,” and ordered to appear later at a hearing in an
immigration court.
“A
person might have entered, or tried to enter, not through a port of entry, and
that is an issue, but once apprehended and released, once processed and put
into removal proceedings, they’re not illegally here,” Claros said. “They’re
here waiting for their case to be heard; they have due process rights for that.
And there’s no illegality behind it.”
Being
under removal proceedings is not a final determination of a migrant’s legal
status but just the beginning of a lengthy process that can take years. If they
have not been previously deported or are known to have committed a serious
crime, most Cuban migrants are released at the border and authorized to stay in
the country until an immigration judge decides on their legal status.
In the
meantime, they have one year to apply for asylum and fight deportation. Cuban
asylum-seekers and those paroled into the country are authorized to work. Even
after final orders of deportation have been handed down, many Cuban nationals
are allowed to work and stay in the country because Cuba will not take them
back.
For most
Cuban migrants, there’s a shortcut to legal status: It is called the Cuban
Adjustment Act. The 1966 law allows Cuban migrants who have been admitted or
paroled into the country to file a petition to obtain permanent residence after
living in the U.S. one year and a day.
Most
Cubans also qualify for benefits and services from the Office of Refugee
Resettlement.
But
there are also differences in how Cuban migrants navigate the system.
Border
authorities have broad discretion on how they handle each case. According to
interviews with Cuban migrants, lawyers, social workers and U.S. officials,
that has resulted in Cuban migrants receiving different types of release
documents, which can result in different paths and sometimes obstacles to
obtaining legal status.
But to
Cubans on the island, U.S. immigration hurdles do not appear to be a deterrent.
Worlds apart from Florida politics, some of the island’s residents seem so fed
up with the poverty and lack of liberties brought by communism that they don’t
seem to fear the dangers of a sea voyage in handmade rafts with no navigation
system.
Between
Friday and Saturday, U.S. Coast Guard cutters took back 309 Cubans attempting
to reach U.S. shores. Four dogs were also repatriated.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/are-cuban-migrants-in-the-united-states-illegals-that-might-be-the-wrong-question/ar-AA10Zq20
***Nora
Gámez Torres, Miami Herald