The Secretary of National Security (DHS, in English) of the United States, Alejandro Mayorkas, assured this Wednesday that in tomorrow’s meeting with senior Cuban officials, both countries will “explore” the possibility of reactivating the migratory agreements.
These, Mayorkas recalled at a press conference at the end of a visit to Panama, without giving further details, were in force for years, but ended up being “discontinued.”
The DHS secretary stressed that this Thursday’s meeting, the first high-level contact between the two governments since President Joe Biden is in power, “is a reflection” of his country’s commitment to the legal and humanitarian channels so that migrants do not have to undertake a “dangerous” journey by sea.
The Cuban Foreign Ministry confirmed the news on Tuesday, advanced by the Reuters agency the day beforeof holding this round of talks on migration with US officials, which will take place in Washington.
The meeting “is a reflection” of his country’s commitment to legal and humanitarian means so that migrants do not have to undertake a “dangerous” journey by sea
The delegation will be chaired by Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, which brings together various opposition organizations from inside and outside the island, spoke out against the meeting on Tuesday, arguing that “the Castro regime is a regime that violates human rights that has committed and continues to commit crimes against humanity. ” and that “these negotiations send a message of weakness and not of support to the Cuban people, at a time when the struggle for freedom is progressively increasing in the country.”
The announcement of the meeting came six days after the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) denounced that the Island Government does not accept the deportation of Cubans since last October.
The Island is experiencing a new unstoppable migratory bloodletting. At the end of November, the island’s regime agreed with President Daniel Ortega on a “free visa” for Cubans traveling to Nicaragua, which from that very moment became the springboard for a river of emigrants seeking to reach the United States. by land route.
The number of Cubans detained at the US-Mexico border soared to 16,531 in February
Until the end of February, and from the beginning of the US fiscal year – which begins on October 1 – they entered the US more than 46,000 Cubansa figure that exceeded the 35,000 of the so-called “rafter crisis” of 1994. Some estimates predict that by September 30, 2022 they will have entered the country from the north around 150,000 citizens of the Islandmore than the 125,000 who entered this territory by sea during the Mariel exodus, between April and October 1980.
The number of Cubans detained on the border between the United States and Mexico soared to 16,531 in February, the highest total recorded in a single month, according to data from the United States Customs and Border Protection Office, the British agency recalls.
Several US politicians have not hesitated to hold Havana responsible for the current migratory exodus and some of them, such as Republican Congressman Marco Rubio, have even branded it an “act of war.”
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