Yesterday I posted on Cubans storming the Nicaragua/Costa Rica border.
Here’s more on the story of thousands of Cubans trying to enter the U.S. before the current policy on Cuban refugees comes to an end:
Cubans Flood Mexico in Bid to Reach U.S. Migrants from island, sensing fragility of their special access to legal status in U.S., are heading to Mexico with the aim of getting to Texas quickly
More than 28,000 Cubans requested asylum in southern Texas in the 12 months ended Sept. 30, according to the U.S. government’s count. They represented about two-thirds of all Cuban asylum seekers in that period and an 80% increase over the previous year.
The more than 9,300 Cubans who have registered with Mexican immigration officials since January to gain safe passage through the country mark an almost fivefold increase from 2014. The Cuban tide has been rising since midsummer, said Mario Madrazo, the Mexican federal official in charge of immigration control.
This, however, is different,
By the time they crossed the shallow Suchiate River by makeshift raft into Mexico, the couple had spent about $1,700 each. A commercial flight to the Texas border would cost them just another $300 per person. In all, that is just half, or less, than what smugglers charge these days to get illegal migrants into the U.S.
How is it different? Because this Cuban couple appears to have been able to circumvent the cartel-controlled coyotes herding border crossings.
