Fears of immigration policy change

triggers new wave of Cuban migrants

Cu
bans gather in a park in Havana to try to secure a visa to the United States. (Sarah L.
Voisin/The Washington Post)

By Nick Mirof January 27, 2014

HAVANA President Obamas opening to Cuba has accelerated a surge in Cuban

migration to the United States, the latest U.S. statistics show, as many on the island
grow worried that Americas long-standing immigration benefits for Cubans are
now in jeopardy.
Last month the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted 481 Cubans in rickety boats and rafts,
a 117 percent increase from December 2013. But the boaters account for only a

fraction of those attempting to reach the United States. At the Miami airport and
ports of entry along the Mexican border, the number of Cubans who arrived seeking
refuge jumped to 8,624 during the last three months of 2014, a 65 percent increase
from the previous year.
Many Cubans have heard warnings for years that their unique immigration
privileges which essentially treat anyone from the island who sets foot on
American terra firma as a political refugee would not last forever.
And they have seen Cuban American lawmakers like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)
increasingly object that too many recent arrivals make a mockery of their refugee
perks by going back to the island for cheap dental work or Santeria ceremonies.
U.S. officials have repeatedly given assurances that these migration laws have not
changed. But the surprise nature of Obamas Cuba move after 18 months of
secret talks with officials of the Castro government has reinforced the sense that
any of the long-standing pillars of American policy toward the island could fall
without warning.
Anyone who is thinking about making the

leap should do it as soon as possible, said

Pupi, one of the Web users offering
advice on busy chat forums like Cubans in
Flight and Cuba in Miami where migrants
trade tips and share the stories of their
journeys.
Cubans hopeful of obtaining a visa to the United
States stand in line outside the United States
Interests Section in Havana. (Sarah L. Voisin/The
Washington Post)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection could

not provide an up-to-date monthly
breakdown of Cuban arrivals. But at U.S.

border crossings with Mexico, 6,489 Cuban migrants arrived during the last three
months of 2014, up from 4,328 the year before. The number of Cubans processed
through the agencys Miami field office rose from 893 to 2,135 over that same
period.
Many of those Cubans flew straight into the Miami airport, having boarded flights
in Madrid, Nassau and elsewhere with passports from Spain and other third
countries. Upon reaching U.S. Customs, they pull out their Cuban documents and
request asylum, or ask to stay under the protections offered by the 1966 Cuban
Adjustment Act, which offers permanent residency to Cubans a year after arrival in
the United States.
When U.S. diplomats traveled to the island last week for talks on migration with
their Havana counterparts, they were emphatic that the benefits conferred on
Cuban migrants were not up for debate.
We explained to the Cuban government that our government is completely

committed to upholding the Cuban Adjustment Act, said Alex Lee, the State
Department official leading the migration-related elements of the talks, which also
paved the way for the two countries to reopen embassies in their respective capitals.
Cuban officials at the talks repeated their adamant opposition to the Cuban
Adjustment Act and the so-called wet-foot, dry-foot policy under which Cubans are
eligible to stay in the United States if they touch American soil. Those intercepted at
sea are returned to Cuba.
Havana blames that policy for encouraging risky illegal migration and fueling a
brain drain of the countrys professionals, who are enticed to take their training and
talent to the United States after receiving a free education from the islands socialist
system.

But even as the Cuban government denounces the policy, it has quietly adjusted its
own laws to reflect the sweeping changes that have occurred in migration patterns
over the past half-century, during which more than a million Cubans have resettled
in the United States.
In ever-growing numbers an estimated 400,000 trips last year these Cuban
Americans are traveling back to the island.
Reaching the States

The Cubans who fled Fidel Castros communist system in the 1960s lost their
property and essentially couldnt return. The Adjustment Act assured them of a new
life in America.
It was a gift from LBJ to the Cuban people, said Miami immigration lawyer

Wilfredo Allen, who said he has been receiving calls and e-mails from nervous
Cubans living in Europe and Latin America wondering if they need to hurry to
reach the United States and secure residency status before a window closes.
A new generation of Cuban migrants increasingly resembles economic migrants
from other Latin American countries. Some go abroad to work seasonally, then
return home to live cheaply off their savings. Ral Castros government has
facilitated that by lifting most restrictions on travel and approving other measures
to let Cubans come and go without losing their property or access to benefits like
free health care.
The U.S. Interests Section in Havana provides roughly 20,000 immigration visas to
Cubans each year as part of the existing migration agreements between the two
countries. Applicants line up each morning in a park a block away from the massive
building that houses the Interests Section, which issued an additional 40,000 nonimmigrant visas last year.

Everyone is waiting to see what the result will be of this normalization with the

United States, said Aliosis Gongora, owner of one of the many businesses around
the Interests Section that charge fees to help fill out visa applications.
Another 15,000 to 25,000 Cubans enter the United States each year at U.S. border
crossings, airports and South Florida beaches. The image of the tattered Cuban
rafter remains powerful, but many of the Cubans who arrive today are not the
islands poorest and most desperate.
They are among the hundreds of thousands of Cubans who have obtained legal
residency or travel documents in a third country, some by marriage, others by
moving to countries like Ecuador, Panama or Venezuela.
At least 65,000 Cubans have received Spanish passports under a law that bestowed
citizenship on the children or grandchildren of emigres, and another 110,000 are
eligible to get them. Like citizens of other European nations, they dont need U.S.
visas, so those Cubans can essentially board a flight anywhere, then petition for
asylum when they arrive at American airports and identify themselves as Cuban.
The travel habits of newer arrivals are at the heart of the Cuba debate in
Washington. Advocates of Obamas thaw say these Cubans will act as agents of
change by supporting Cuban entrepreneurs and spreading democratic values.
Critics say they are pouring money into Castro government coffers and abusing
their privileges as political refugees. Local legislators in Miami-Dade County last
week urged Congress to revise the Adjustment Act.
Ive never criticized anyone who wants to go back to Cuba to visit a loved one,

Rubio said last year. What I do think is that if you come to this country and say
you are in exile, fleeing oppression ... and you travel back to Cuba 20, 30, 40 times
a year, it really undermines that argument.

That sort of travel puts at risk the status Cubans have, he said, adding that he

supports a re-examination of the Adjustment Act, without giving specifics.

Phil Peters, president of the Cuba Research Center in Alexandria, Va., and a former
State Department official under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W.
Bush, argues that the Adjustment Act is overdue for an update, possibly requiring
Cubans to demonstrate political persecution, as migrants from other countries
must do.
There is no reason for Cubans to be the chosen people of U.S. immigration policy,

with automatic admission, residency and financial benefits, regardless of need or

circumstance, he said.
The law has also functioned for decades as a political pressure valve, he added.
The grand irony is that the open-door immigration policy does more to weaken the

development of political opposition in Cuba than any other factor, draining the
country of tens of thousands each year who are looking for other options, he said.

Nick Mirof is a Latin America correspondent for The Post,

roaming from the U.S.-Mexico borderlands to South Americas southern cone. He
has been a staf writer since 2006.
Posted by Thavam