Among the thousands of migrants who are trying to enter the United States through the border with Mexico these days, there are hundreds of Nicaraguans and Cubans who do not have the same luck as others because they are not subject to Title 42 and can request political asylum without risk of being driven out
At the El Paso international airport, in the Texas border city, dozens of Cubans and Nicaraguans spent Wednesday night waiting for flights that would take them to their final destination.
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In the month of October, the last month for which data is available, Cubans surpassed Venezuelans in the number of apprehensions at the southern border, with more than 29,000 reported arrests according to data from the US Customs and Border Protection. (CBP).
Nicaraguans, for their part, are the fourth nationality that presented the most arrests, with more than 20,983 arrests, the highest peak for citizens of this country in the last twelve months.
Because these countries do not accept U.S. deportation flights, migrants of these nationalities who cross irregularly and turn themselves in to authorities are not subject to Title 42.
This health norm, which the Supreme Court decided to maintain in a precautionary manner until the lower instances resolve the case, allows the border authorities to immediately expel migrants who arrive at the border.
People from Cuba, Nicaragua and other countries that have not entered into US agreements with other governments in the region, especially Mexico, are released into the country where they can wait while their asylum cases are resolved.
Rosa, 39, is part of these figures: she left Nicaragua on November 25 and crossed the Rio Grande, which divides El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, less than a week ago. There she was arrested by border agents who took her and her two children to a detention center where she spent 48 hours.
“I left the country because it was increasingly bankrupt, things are more expensive every day,” this woman with long black hair and a tired look told EFE. Her son David, 18 years old and a boxing fan, said that he decided to leave Nicaragua to support her, but also because of government harassment. “They force us young people to go on strike or to participate in events,” said the young man.
A few meters from where David and his mother were and wrapped in some Red Cross blankets, Yaimaris and her husband Rolando waited for their seven-year-old daughter Luz to fall asleep.
Like Rosa and her children, they also spent 48 hours in a detention center. His journey to the US was by air and by land: by plane to Nicaragua and then by bus to the border with Mexico.
“The most difficult part was leaving Cuba,” said Rolando, who said he is looking forward to getting to Miami, where he hopes to give his daughter a better future. Next to him, Francesco, also Cuban, who was released the day before from the detention center, agrees with what Luz’s father says: “Every day the situation gets worse” in that country, he said.
In the past twelve months, more than 250,000 Cubans have been arrested crossing the US-Mexico border, the largest wave of migration from the island to the US since the late 1990s. In fiscal year 2022, CBP apprehended more than 2.76 million migrants who crossed the border, a record number.
