Sandra surrendered this Wednesday at the US border with her children after a long trip from Cuba, but the joy was short-lived. This Cuban woman left the island on April 10 for the United States and has just been a victim of the new immigration agreement reached by Mexico and Washington on April 26, according to senior officials from both countries told the newspaper The Washington Post.
With it, the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador agrees to take charge of the expelled migrants under Title 42, approved for health reasons as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The rule allows foreigners who arrive in the US irregularly to be immediately returned to the country through which they entered, although it has been applied on few occasions to Cuban citizens. The federal government’s decision to remove this restriction is in court because the US border states ask that it be maintained.
Sandra left Cuba with her two children, aged seven and one respectively, in addition to four of her husband’s relatives, in the “volcano route”. A Viva Aerobus flight took her off the island and, after a technical stopover in Cancun, she landed in Managua. From there, like thousands of migrants, she has suffered a bumpy and sad journey until she reached her goal yesterday without being detained.
A few hours after entering the US through the Ciudad Juárez-El Paso border. She was taken with her family group to a processing center where they took data from everyone and returned it over a bridge to Mexico.
However, a few hours after entering the US through the Ciudad Juárez-El Paso border. She was taken with her family group to a processing center where they took data from everyone and returned it to Mexico over a bridge without applying the Remain in Mexico program, the result of a previous agreement between Lopez Obrador and Donald Trump, which establishes that migrants wait on the other side of the border for the legalization of your situation in the US.
The new agreement between these two countries is very significant, since Mexico’s capacity to deport migrants to Cuba is enormous, while the Island Government has not accepted returns from the US since October of last year, as revealed a couple of months ago. weeks the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE). Faced with this, 975 citizens have arrived in Havana from Mexico so far this year.
However, of the 78,903 Cubans detained at the southern border between October 1, 2021 and March 31, only 737 were expelled to Mexico under Title 42, according to official data.
According to the American newspaper, April once again broke all records in an exodus that already dwarfs the Mariel exodus, the paradigm of Cuban migration to date, with more than 125,000 exiles in 1980. In the fourth month of the year, 35,000 arrived in the US Cubans, surpassing the previous month that, with 32,000, had already reached maximums. If all nationalities are taken into account, the number of detained migrants rose to 234,000 in April, compared to 221,000 in March.
The migration talks in recent weeks were held between the Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, and the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, with the Mexican side, which promised to accept more Cubans and Nicaraguans. One of the sources of Washington Post He affirmed that the Mexican government asked the United States to refrain from returning migrants who cross through areas where their work is being outdone, such as the Del Río Sector (in front of Ciudad Acuña).
“In the case of Cuba, we also took into account that the United States restarted visa processing on the island,” said the official, in reference to the resumption of consular services in Havana.
The Mexican authorities have also increased the arrests of migrants, thousands of them Cubans, and it is a rare day when a large number of them are not found in some truck, hiding place or shelter, often in more than precarious conditions.
In the fourth month of the year, 35,000 Cubans arrived in the US, surpassing the previous month, which, with 32,000, had already reached a maximum
This Wednesday, Dulce García, executive director of the Border Angel group – an organization for the defense of migrants – said that they had managed to get 300 migrants who were waiting in Tijuana to be admitted to the United States. The activist spoke with the directors of 17 shelters, most of them from Tijuana, who told him they wanted the asylum process reopened.
“On April 18, when Border Angels met with DHS officials, they agreed. They gave us the opportunity to cross a few asylum seekers each day, news that filled the shelter directors with joy,” he said.
García added that the migrants who will cross in the next few days have already been identified and there will be no opportunity to include more people, unless the US government restores the asylum process.
“We are very sorry that only some people cross the border, while so many others will remain living at risk, unless the implementation of Title 42 actually ends and the procedure is restored,” he added.
In this context, López Obrador’s visit to Cuba and other Latin American countries will take place, with which, among other things, he will address the issue of migration. Meanwhile, Sandra is not satisfied with the government agreements and she waits with her family in an accommodation in Ciudad Juárez to contact another coyote to take her to the United States.
