The Embassy of USA in Cuba reported this Wednesday that the first Cubans have already been approved to emigrate legally as part of the new policy in force for five days.
“These people will now benefit from legal, safe and orderly migration instead of attempting irregular and dangerous routes,” the embassy said on Twitter.
The first Cuban citizens have already been approved for the new parole program to the US since the program began last Friday. These people will now benefit from legal, safe and orderly migration instead of attempting irregular and dangerous routes. pic.twitter.com/SXPtadhbM8
— Embassy of the United States in Cuba (@USEmbCuba) January 11, 2023
The message does not offer further details, but it is followed by comments from users who wonder how it is possible that there were already approvals for this year, if there are abundant processes pending from previous years.
The US diplomatic representation in Havana has also warned of possible cases of fraud to carry out migration services and reiterated that “the border is closed to irregular migration.”
The Joe Biden Administration expanded a humanitarian program that will now receive 30,000 migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua every month. Until then it only involved Venezuelans.
In parallel, Biden announced that the US would expel migrants to Mexico who try to cross into its territory irregularly. Mexico agreed to admit migrants expelled from US territory.
The United States has seen record numbers of irregular migrants trying to cross at its southern border, motivated, for the most part, by a new unprecedented migratory exodus from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
In the case of Cuba, a total of 224,607 citizens arrived at the southern border of the United States in the recently concluded fiscal year 2022, between October 1, 2021 and September 30, 2022, according to a report from efe.
Likewise, until last October 1, the date on which the current fiscal year began, 3,370 islanders were detained in the Straits of Florida.
That figure reaches half of the arrests for the same reason that occurred in the entire previous fiscal year (6,182).
Efe/OnCuba.
