Agents of the Border Patrol of the United States detained 18 Cuban rafters when making landfall in the Florida Keys in a wooden fishing boat, reported through Twitter Officer Thomas G. Martin. The migrants, of whom they did not provide further details, were located during a “maritime smuggling” operation near Key West.
It is known that the rafters are taken to an immigration center, where they are given the opportunity of the so-called “credible fear” interview, according to said the lawyer of Immigration Willy Allen to the journalist Mario Pentón. If they convince the judge, they are “given a bond and can ask for asylum” and in the best of cases they are released with a parole or another document that legalizes your entry into the country.
The exodus of migrants is unstoppable. Since October 1, the US Coast Guard has intercepted 210 Cubans and most have been returned to the island. The Cuban government adds this year 1,137 returnees and he does not stop blaming the attempts to escape from the island on his habitual enemy, the United States.
The president of the exile group Movimiento Democracia, Ramón Saúl Sánchez, in July attributed this silent march by Cubans to “deterioration of the island’s infrastructure, the pandemic, and the continued repression of the regime.”
In an interview with the EFE agency, the activist did not rule out that in the face of this context, a massive migration is unleashed. In the last year, maritime migration increased, with 838 Cubans intercepted by the US Coast Guard.
The exodus of migrants is unstoppable. Since October 1, the US Coast Guard has intercepted 210 Cubans and most have been returned to the island.
This Wednesday, the Bahamas authorities returned 45 migrants, 40 men and five women, to the island. Last Saturday they returned 12 who had been rescued three days earlier 90 miles northeast of Cancun, Mexico.
At another event earlier this week, a Virgin Voyages cruise, Scarlet lady, rescued eight rafters in the Straits of Florida. The migrants were in a rustic raft equipped with two oars, according to information from the portal Cruise radio.
They are joined by the group of 32 Cuban rafters repatriated on October 22, who were intercepted in Caribbean waters. The migrants were detained at two points, about 11 miles south of Marathon, in the Florida Keys, and others were located in a boat about 23 miles south of Sal Key, in the Bahamas.
Meanwhile, in Mexico the National Migration Institute announced the offering of Visiting Cards for Humanitarian Reasons to pregnant women, girls, boys and adolescents, which will allow them not to be detained or subjected to deportation processes.
It was proposed to the members of the caravan of 1,200 migrants that is advancing in the Mexican state of Chiapas and in which there are Cubans, Haitians, Guatemalans, “to also grant permanent residence to migrants with definitive refugee resolutions issued by the Mexican Commission. of Aid to Refugees “, according to a release.
The INM’s announcement comes a day after the authorities of the border city of Tijuana with the United States fenced off a makeshift camp, arguing that it is to prevent the entry of people who “sell drugs or alcohol” and to protect children. The undocumented persons expressed their fear of being evicted because this next November 8 the borders are reopened for non-essential crossings.
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