Lawmaker: Lift travel ban for 90 days

Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, asked President Bush to suspend for 90 days the restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba so that Cuban-Americans may assist and visit relatives whose lives were disrupted by the two recent hurricanes. In a letter this week, Berman told Bush that "there is no more effective way to urgently get relief to Cubans in need than to lift U.S. government restrictions to allow direct family assistance. [...] Whether or not one agrees with current U.S. policy," aid should be provided to the people of Cuba "in a time of great hardship," Berman writes. In an article Wednesday in The Washington Post, Silvia Wilhelm, director of the Miami-based Cuban American Commission for Family Rights, is quoted as saying she fears "a major immigration crisis in the next few months." The situation "is very critical for the Cuban people." To read the entire article, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Actor quits Cuba for Miami and a better life

Yamil Jaled, a well-known Cuban television actor, has left Cuba for South Florida in search of a better life, El Nuevo Herald reported Friday. "I left Cuba because I grew tired. When it comes to television, there's nothing to do over there because every program that is aired is the result of an agonizing process of censorship, vetoes and 800 revisions by functionaries," he told the newspaper. Jaled has been a leading man in a couple of popular TV series and has appeared on stage since 1997. He told El Nuevo Herald that his life had stagnated in a country where television "is in the Stone Age" and his monthly salary of US$140 was not enough for his basic needs. He criticized the Cuban Radio & TV Institute ("a museum"), "the antiquated technology, the lack of transportation, the lack of costumes for the casts, and the rotten food. [...] After 10 years go by and everything stays the same, you simply can't stand it anymore and say 'this is as far as I go.'" Two weeks into his new life in the U.S., he says he was gratified by his reception in Miami. People "walk up to me, tell me they're happy I'm here and ask me when I'll begin to act on Miami television," he says. To read the entire article, in Spanish, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Honduras probes suspected sale of visas

A scandal dubbed "el cubanazo" (roughly, "Cubagate") is shaking up Honduras' Immigration Directorate, leading to the resignation of its director and secretary general in the past couple of months. An investigating committee created in April by the ministries of Foreign Relations, the Interior, and Justice reported this week that "between April 2006 and February 2008, almost 100 Cuban citizens illegally entered and left Honduras [...] protected by a series of fraudulent dealings that involve government functionaries." In all the known cases, the Cubans left for the United States shortly after arriving in Honduras, other media have said. "Grave administrative irregularities" were committed in the granting -- some say the selling -- of the visas to Cubans by Honduran officials in both Havana and Tegucigalpa, the report says. One Honduran consul in Havana resigned in May, under suspicion. The report was delivered to the Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime, who will consider what punitive action should be taken against the officials involved. [In photo: Germán Espinal, who resigned as Director of Immigration on July 8.]
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Latest Cuban migrant border arrival figures released

   The Mexican border continues to be the place where the bulk of Cuban migrants are seeking to enter the United States. Figures released Thursday by Customs and Border Protection show that once again the majority of Cuban migrants is showing up at the southwest border after crossing Mexico following arrival by boat in Cancun and Isla Mujeres. (The Associated Press photo shows Cuban migrants in custody in Cancun in June). According to these figures at least 8,829 Cuban migrants showed up at the Mexico-U.S. border from Oct. 1, 2007 to July 31 – during the so-called 2008 fiscal year.

That figure is considerably higher than the total number of Coast Guard Cuban migrant interdictions in the Florida Straits during the same period (1,623) and the total number of Cuban migrant landings recorded by the Border Patrol in South Florida during the same period (2,568).

Below is a chart showing the estimated number of Cuban migrants attempting to reach the United States via the Mexican border in recent years.

Cuban Migrant Border Arrivals by Fiscal Year (Oct. 1 to Sept. 30)

Year

2005 7,267

2006 8,639

2007 11,487

2008 8,829

*2008 as of July 31, 2008

Source: Customs and Border Protection

 

  -- Alfonso Chardy

Sea escape ends in near-disaster

About 30 Cuban emigrants almost didn't make it to Cancún, Mexico, when the yacht that carried them developed engine problems and burst into flames, the Mexican newspaper Novedades de Quintana Roo reported. The incident occurred in mid-afternoon Wednesday, as the yacht approached Delfines Beach in Cancún. The Cubans leaped into the water, swam to shore and dispersed in the resort area. The police seized seven as they tried to board a van that may have been waiting for the yacht; the others, including the yacht's captain, disappeared. The survivors told police that they had left Havana on a raft; the raft sank and they were picked up by the yacht, they alleged. Police officials told Novedades they suspect the yacht was about to complete a smuggling mission when the mishap occurred. Typically, smugglers transfer emigrants from speedboats to yachts to make the arrivals look less suspicious, police said. [Photo credit: Novedades.]
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Mexico Cuban migrant route could close

    After interdictions by the U.S. Coast Guard increased in the Florida Straits, Cuban migrants seeking to reach the United States began using an alternate route through Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. As a result, the bulk of undocumented Cuban migrants reaching the United States is now arriving through the Yucatan peninsula. How long the Mexican route will remain open remains to be seen, but Mexico and Cuba are negotiating an immigration agreement aimed at ending or reducing the current migrant flow to Yucatan. A Reuters dispatch from Havana last week said Mexican officials hope to sign the agreement with Cuba in September. The story quoted the Mexican ambassador to Havana Gabriel Jimenez. At least 5,784 undocumented Cuban migrants arrived at the U.S.-Mexican border between Oct. 1 and April 15, according to figures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection released earlier this year. Between Oct. 1, 2006 and Sept. 30, 2007 at least 11,487 undocumented Cuban migrants arrived at the Mexican border.

    The total for the these two periods is more than 17,000 and it’s safe to say that the majority of these Cuban border arrivals landed first in the Yucatan peninsula after crossing the Yucatan Channel from western Cuba. (The Associated Press photo shows a group of Cuban migrants in Cancun in June under Mexican military custody).

   The numbers of undocumented Cuban migrants interdicted in the Florida Straits or who have arrived on South Florida beaches pale in comparison.

   Between Oct. 1 and July 15, for example, at least 2,568 undocumented Cuban migrants arrived in South Florida while at least 1,335 were interdicted between Jan. 1 and July 21 for a total of 3,903.

-- Alfonso Chardy

Cuban migrants continue to land in South Florida

    New figures released this week by the U.S. Border Patrol indicate that the number of Cuban migrants landing in South Florida continues to increase. (The photo by Miami Herald photographer Tim Chapman shows a group of Cuban migrants in the Florida Keys in February). It’s not a mass exodus, but it’s a steady stream of migrants that has been growing since Fidel Castro took ill and ceded power to his younger brother Raul in July 2006. Between Oct. 1, 2007 and this past Monday, at least 2,568 Cuban migrants have landed in South Florida – about 945 more than the number of Cuban migrants stopped at sea in the Florida Straits between Oct. 1, 2007 and June 30. An even larger number of Cuban migrants has arrived through the Mexican border – almost 6,000 between Oct. 1, 2007 and April 15.The Mexican route has become the most popular since U.S. authorities began a crackdown against Cuban migrant smugglers in the Florida Straits over the last year. On May 6, for example, federal prosecutors in Miami disclosed a dozen indictments charging 23 men with attempting to smuggle Cuban migrants by boat into South Florida.

   It is unclear if the crackdown has diminished the number of Cuban migrants headed for South Florida.

   Interdictions of Cuban migrants in the Florida Straits during June dropped dramatically compared to prior months. Between January and May, between 100-200 Cuban migrants were interdicted at sea every month – but in June only 46 were stopped, according to Coast Guard figures.

   Border Patrol figures show that Cuban migrants are still getting through, given the 2,568 reported to have landed in South Florida between October and mid-July.

-- Alfonso Chardy

Airship to spot migrants, among other missions

    The U.S. Coast Guard may soon have additional help in spotting undocumented migrants, drug traffickers and others off Florida’s coasts. The U.S. Navy, in coordination with the Coast Guard and the recently-created National Office of Global Maritime Situational Awareness, is conducting a six-week testing phase of an airship off South Florida. (The photos by Coast Guard petty officer 3^rd class Nick Ameen, 7^th District Public Affairs, show the airship as it rises near Key West and one of the pilots surveying the Florida Straits from the air)

   Maritime surveillance is the airship’s main mission, and according to Coast Guard officials one of its main tasks is law-enforcement which includes assisting vessels in interdicting undocumented migrants and/or others headed toward the United States without authorization such as drug traffickers. The Cuban migrant flow has been steadily rising since Fidel Castro took ill in July 2006. Coast Guard interdictions of undocumented Cuban migrants last year, 3,197, were the highest in a single year since the 37,191 spotted in the Florida Straits during the 1994 rafter exodus. So far this year, at least 1,255 undocumented Cuban migrants have been stopped at sea by the Coast Guard.

   Under the wet-foot/dry-foot policy, Cuban migrants stopped at sea are generally returned to the island while those who make it ashore are allowed to stay in the United States.

   According to a recent Coast Guard statement, the airship plan is the result of several recent studies indicating the effectiveness of airships in maritime surveillance.

   “The lighter than air platform will fly patrols to test both the systems and crew mission, loading and fatigue factors,’’ the statement said.

   The airship now being tested is a Skyship 600, owned and operated by Airship Management Services, Inc. and leased by NAVAIR PMA-262 of Patuxent River, Md. It was configured for the mission with the assistance of the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C., and is staffed by a three-person crew.

-- Alfonso Chardy

Love in the time of migration

A Cuban film that brings together Romeo, Juliet and emigration will open Tuesday in Havana, the French news agency AFP reported. Personal Belongings deals with Ernesto, a young man who has been trying for three years to emigrate and lives in his car, his suitcases packed, and Ana, whose family fled the island in a raft but who insists in staying. They meet and fall in love, knowing that their future together is uncertain. The movie's writer-producer-director, Alejandro Brugués, told AFP that emigration was his "excuse to make a love story about people who are completely different." The film "is like Romeo and Juliet, except that, instead of having their families to contend with, they are faced with the way in which they choose to live." The movie, which won a prize at the 2007 Havana Film Festival, will be shown nationwide on Thursday.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Cuban migrant smuggling surges in Mexico

    The Cuban migrant flow through Mexico, once an amusing novelty, is beginning to cause concern south of the border.

   Only three years ago, the sporadic arrival of Cuban migrants in Cancun and other ports in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula drew only the attention of local news outlets.

   But the mood began to change last summer when the bullet-riddled body of a Cuban from the Miami area was discovered near Cancun after he and his wealthy Mexican girlfriend were kidnapped in the resort. Her body appeared a few days later as Mexican authorities described the murders as a “settlement of accounts’’ among Cuban migrant smuggling gangs.

   Evidence of Mexico’s concern emerged when authorities in Mexico City opened an investigation recently into illegal links between Mexican immigration officers and Cuban migrant smugglers as well as drug-trafficking cartel assassins. Investigators are also looking at the presence of possible Cuban migrant smugglers from the Miami area in Cancun and other Yucatan resorts and cities.

   In addition, the Mexican Navy has become more active in intercepting boats carrying Cuban migrants around the Cancun-Isla Mujeres area. The Associated Press photo shows a group of detained Cuban migrants escorted by Mexican Navy soldiers June 6.

   Concern grew significantly when gunmen intercepted a bus in southern Mexico on June 11 and snatched 37 undocumented Cuban and Central American migrants who were being taken to a migrant detention center. Some of the Cuban migrants later turned up safe and sound at the Texas border suggesting that their “abductors’’ were actually migrant smugglers who freed them from Mexican government custody.

   The majority of Cuban migrants who arrive in Yucatan later make their way to the U.S. border for admission into the United States under the wet-foot/dry-foot policy.

   The increasing numbers of Cuban migrants arriving in Cancun and other Yucatan seaports is also fueling concern among Mexican authorities. Figures from Customs and Border Protection, a Homeland Security agency, tell the story.

   In fiscal year 2005, at least 7,267 Cuban migrants showed up at the border. But in fiscal year 2007 the number hit 11,487.

   CBP figures also show that from the start of fiscal year 2005 on Oct. 1, 2004 and this past April, at least 33,177 Cuban migrants have shown up along the border – an amount almost equal to the number of Cuban rafters during the 1994 exodus: 37,191.

   U.S. Coast Guard interdictions of Cuban migrants in the Florida Straits during roughly the same period of time are much lower in comparison: 10,123.

   Under the wet-foot/dry-foot policy, Cuban migrants stopped at sea by the Coast Guard are generally returned while those who arrive at the beach, the border or an airport or seaport in the United States are allowed to stay.

-- Alfonso Chardy

Cuban rafters encountered off the Florida Keys

   The cruise ship Carnival Valor was returning to the Port of Miami after a tour of Mexico, Central America and Jamaica when passengers spotted something unusual in the ocean off the Florida Keys.

   It was a small group of Cuban rafters hoping to reach the United States.

   Angela C. Cortes Martinez, a Broward real estate salesperson, witnessed the episode in mid-June and took pictures of the rafters. The picture here is one of many she snapped that day as a passenger on the cruise ship.

   Petty Officer Barry Bena, a Coast Guard spokesman, and Vance Gulliksen, a Carnival Cruise Lines spokesman, verified Cortes Martinez’s account. Bena said the group was spotted about 24 miles south of Big Pine Key.

   The encounter with the rafters unfolded around 11 am. Six men and one woman, the men in their 40s and the woman in her 30s, were seen waving at the cruise ship.

   As the ship approached, passengers heard the rafters shouting for water and food.

   Once the ship came alongside the makeshift raft, some passengers began throwing bottles of water – but cruise ship crewmembers put a stop to that, she said.

   Eventually, Cortes Martinez said, the Carnival Valor stopped near the rafters' rustic vessel and the crew directly supplied the rafters with a bag of food and water bottles.

   Then the Coast Guard was summoned and after several hours a small rescue vessel showed up and picked up the rafters.

    “Passengers thought the rafters would be picked up and brought to Miami,’’ said Cortes Martinez.

   Under the wet-foot/dry-foot policy, undocumented Cuban rafters found at sea are generally returned to the island while those who reach shore are allowed to stay. Bena said the seven rafters were repatriated.

   Cortes Martinez now feels that the policy should be amended to allow rafters who “get close to shore’’ to stay.

   “We have freedom and take it for granted,’’ she said. “We should appreciate our freedoms.’’

-- Alfonso Chardy

Some Miami Cuban exiles said linked to migrant smuggling in Mexico

    It’s become clear that Cubans who live or once lived in the Miami area have set up homes or temporary residence in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula allegedly to assist in the growing and profitable business of migrant smuggling from Cuba to Cancun and then on to the U.S. border.

   The Associated Press photo shows a group of detained Cuban migrants being escorted by Mexican soldiers in Cancun on June 6. Increasing numbers of Cuban migrants are arriving in Cancun. Then they make their way to the U.S. border where they are allowed to enter the United States under the wet-foot/dry-foot policy.

   At least four Miami-area Cubans have been linked to Cuban migrant smuggling over the last year either in news articles published in Mexico or in statements by Mexican authorities.

   The first Miami area Cuban exile publicly linked to the business was Luis Lara who arrived in Hialeah from Cuba almost six years ago and then left for Merida in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula in 2006. Lara’s bullet-riddled body showed up in July 2007 at an isolated spot outside Cancun, where gunmen had kidnapped him along with his wealthy Mexican girlfriend. Her body was discovered a few days later. Mexican authorities said their murders stemmed from a “settlement of accounts’’ among Cuban migrant smuggling gangs operating in Cancun and Merida.

   The second and third Miami Cuban exiles connected to the business were Nairobi Claro and Noriel Veloz, both with Little Havana addresses.

   Their names appeared Monday in the Mexico City newspaper La Jornada which quoted sources close to a federal investigation in Mexico as saying that they were in the custody of Mexican authorities as suspects in Cuban migrant smuggling.

   The newspaper said the sources claimed the men told Mexican investigators that they belonged to the Cuban American National Foundation. But Francisco “Pepe’’ Hernandez, president of the foundation, categorically denied the assertion. On Thursday the foundation formally demanded that La Jornada retract the story and print an apology, signaling possible legal action. (You can read the foundation retraction demand press release and letter to La Jornada here: press release jornada_eng.pdf   jornada_letter.pdf )

   The name of a fourth Miami area Cuban exile emerged in a story last week about a bizarre development in Yucatan. The Associated Press reported from Cancun that hundreds of police and military personnel had been rushed to an immigration center in southern Mexico after receiving threats that gunmen would try to free a detained Cuban exile being held on migrant smuggling charges.

   The detained Cuban was identified as Hanoy Cardentey, who has an address in the Hammocks area of Southwest Miami-Dade. But a man who identified himself as Cardentey called The Miami Herald Friday night and said he was not in detention. He said Mexican authorities had confused him with an actual detainee by the name of Ruben Tito. Public records did not show a local address for a Ruben Tito.

Cuba to Mexico: No 3rd-country deportees

Fearing infiltration by terrorists, Cuba is not taking back any Cuban migrants who have been detained in Mexico after arriving from neighboring countries, the Mexican daily Excelsior reported Thursday. The newspaper quotes Cuban Ambassador Manuel Francisco Aguilera de la Paz as saying that "some of the Cuban emigrants have been used for political purposes in acts of terrorism against Cuba and we don't want to run the risk that they infiltrate terrorists into our country." The word "they" presumably means hostile groups in the United States or elsewhere. "We are not accepting those who arrive from third countries -- such as Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras -- and we have explained to the Mexican authorities that this is due primarily to reasons of national security," Aguilera said. In some cases, neither the Mexican nor the Cuban authorities know if the suspected migrants come from Central America or Miami, he said. Cuba will take back only those who can prove they arrived in Mexico directly from Cuba.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

More Cubans are settling in Arizona

An ever-growing Cuban community is making a mark in Phoenix, The Arizona Republic reported Sunday. Over the past 15 years, as many as 10,000 Cubans have settled in the Valley of the Sun, becoming one of the five largest Hispanic groups in the area. Many of the newcomers are being resettled in Phoenix by humanitarian organizations because Miami is saturated with immigrants, the newspaper said. Compared with Miami, "Phoenix has a more affordable cost of living [and] it's easier to find a job," a Catholic Charities official told the newspaper. Many Cubans who fled the island through Mexico decided to settle in Arizona, rather than go on to Florida. To read the entire article, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Smuggling attempt is foiled; two die

Smugglers in a powerful speedboat rammed and overturned a rowboat with 20 Cubans they were supposed to ferry to the United States, killing a woman and an 11-year-old boy, the official daily Granma reported Wednesday. The smugglers were about to take the migrants aboard when they were surprised by a Coast Guard launch and sank the rowboat to distract the border guards while they fled, the newspaper said. The incident reportedly took place Monday at dawn off the coast of Villa Clara province. One of the survivors told Granma the smugglers came from Florida and planned to collect $10,000 from each migrant after taking them across the strait. The newspaper blamed "the murderous Cuban Adjustment Act and the U.S. government's double standards for the death of innocent people." For Granma's account in English, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Cuban migrant interdictions exceed 1,000 so far this year

    The number of Cuban migrant interdictions so far this year by the U.S. Coast Guard has exceeded 1,000.

   Figures posted by the U.S. Coast Guard on its Internet website -- http://www.d7publicaffairs.com/-- show that as of Tuesday at least 1,093 Cuban migrants had been picked up by the Coast Guard since Jan. 1.

   While the figure does not set a record, it illustrates the ongoing departures from Cuba of undocumented migrants hoping to reach U.S. soil. About 1,005 Cuban migrants were picked up by the Coast Guard during the first five months of 2007.

   Since Fidel Castro took ill in July 2006, the number of Cuban migrants leaving the island has steadily increased – though no mass exodus has occurred.

   If another 1,000 Cubans are interdicted in the Florida Straits in the next six months, the total for the year will be somewhat similar to the total number of interdictions in 2006 when 2,293 Cuban migrants were stopped at sea.

   The 3,197 Cuban migrants stopped at sea last year was the highest number of interdictions in a single year since the 1994 rafter exodus when at least 37,191 migrants were spotted in the Florida Straits.

   Under the wet-foot/dry-foot policy, undocumented Cuban migrants stopped at sea are generally returned to the island while those who make it ashore are allowed to stay.

-- Alfonso Chardy

Cuban migrant interdictions approaching 1,000 mark

    Cuban migrant interdictions in the Florida Straits so far this year is approaching the 1,000 mark.

   According to the latest interdiction figures posted by the U.S. Coast Guard on its website, http://www.d7publicaffairs.com/, at least 909 Cuban migrants have been stopped at sea between Jan. 1 and Tuesday. Only last month interdictions stood at slightly more than 700.

   The number of Cuban migrants leaving the island without papers for the United States has increased steadily since Fidel Castro took ill in July 2006.

   Last year, for example, at least 3,197 Cuban migrants were stopped at sea – the largest number of Cuban migrants interdicted in a single year since the 1994 rafter exodus when 37,191 Cuban migrants were spotted in the Florida Straits.

   At the current pace, interdictions this year could match or exceed the number of interdictions last year.

   Under the wet-foot/dry-foot policy, undocumented Cuban migrants who make it ashore are allowed to stay and those stopped at sea are generally returned to Cuba.

   This week, the Coast Guard repatriated at least 42 Cuban migrants, according to a press statement issued Wednesday.

-- Alfonso Chardy

More Cuban migrants interdicted and repatriated

    Ever since Fidel Castro took ill in July 2006 the number of Cuban migrants leaving the island has steadily increased.
   Growing numbers of Cubans without papers have been interdicted at sea, have landed on South Florida shores or shown up at entry points along the Mexican-U.S. border.
   As of last Tuesday, at least 784 Cuban migrants had been intercepted at sea in the Florida Straits by the U.S. Coast Guard -- just in the first months of the year.
   If this pace continues, the number of interdicted Cuban migrants by year's end could match the 3,197 migrants stopped at sea in 2007. Last year's figure was the largest number of Cuban migrants stopped in a single year in the Florida Straits since the 1994 rafter exodus when 37,191 were spotted in the area.
   Under the wet-foot/dry-foot policy, Cuban migrants who make it ashore are allowed to stay and those stopped at sea are generally sent back home.
   On Saturday, the U.S. Coast Guard announced the repatriation of 79 Cuban migrants intercepted in several incidents in the last few days.
   According to a Coast Guard statement, one of the main incidents unfolded when a Customs and Border Protection aircraft located two go-fast vessels traveling together about 40 miles southeast of Miami Wednesday.
   Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine agents patrolling the area intercepted the vessels "using disabling fire'' after the suspected smugglers refused to stop, some 12 miles east of Miami. Fifty eight migrants were transferred to the Coast Guard cutter Pea Island and four suspected smugglers were turned over to the Border Patrol, the Coast Guard statement said.
-- Alfonso Chardy
   

Raúl's daughter: Relax travel restrictions

The Cuban people should be allowed to leave their country without "absurd" restrictions, Raúl Castro's daughter Mariela told the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia this week, in a wide-ranging interview. Excerpts: "At present, people can leave, but with great difficulty. [The authorities] would have to reduce the absurd obstacles, which to me seem awful. [...] All countries have restrictions and rules for everything, but they don't have foreign laws that make the designing of their national policies even more difficult. There is the U.S. Cuban Adjustment Act, which rewards those who leave illegally, yet [the Americans] do not grant the visas agreed upon to travel to the U.S. in a legal manner. And this is a very serious matter that should be resolved with the support of governments that claim to love democracy. [...] We cannot impose limitations in addition to the ones imposed by the enemies of the Cuban nation. Let everything be analyzed in depth, so the best solutions may be found. Let us not deprive the people of their right to leave. As far as I'm concerned, give permission to anyone who wishes to leave, so long as they have no debts with justice." To read the entire interview (in Spanish) click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

How people with a Cuban parent could obtain a green card

    Several people in Latin America who are children of Cuban parents have been wondering whether they can qualify for a green card under recent immigration agency regulations.

   The answer is yes – but only if they are in the United States. They cannot just show up at the Mexico-U.S. border or at a U.S. embassy or consulate and be guaranteed entry under the Cuban Adjustment Act and associated regulations.

   Typical of the many inquiries is a recent e-mail from Fidel Juarez, born in Nicaragua of a Cuban father. Juarez asked whether he could qualify for a green card under a recent U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services decision known as Matter of Vazquez that applies to children of at least one Cuban parent born outside the island.

   “I am the son of a Cuban father, but I was born in Nicaragua,’’ Juarez wrote to The Miami Herald recently. “My father later took me to live in Cuba, where he registered me in the civil registry. Thus I have a Cuba birth certificate plus a Cuban identity card for having lived in Cuba many years.’’

   Juarez wondered whether by simply showing up at the border he could qualify to enter and stay.

   Larry Rifkin, the Miami immigration attorney who successfully litigated the Matter of Vazquez, said the regulation only applies to people with a Cuban parent who have already been admitted or paroled into the United States.

   Whether a foreign national with a Cuban parent who shows up at the border without a U.S. visa will be allowed in is up to the individual immigration officer handling the case.

   In general, Cubans who can demonstrate to immigration officers they are Cubans by birth will be allowed in under the wet-foot/dry-foot policy. People who claim Cuban citizenship through a parent but are nationals of another country may be allowed in, turned back or detained at the border while U.S. authorities decide the case.

   That’s what happened in a highly publicized case last summer when Customs and Border Protection at the border allowed Abel Gomez, a Cuban migrant, into the country – but detained his Venezuelan-born wife and two young children.

   Ocdalis Gómez and her children Abel, 2 at the time, and Winnelis, 6 at the time, were released only after the story appeared in The Miami Herald and other South Florida media. The family appears in the photo above, taken when Ocdalis and the children reunited with Abel at Miami International Airport after she was released from immigration detention.

-- Alfonso Chardy

More Cuban migrant landings in South Florida

   Cuban migrant interdictions in the Florida Straits are on the rise – but so are Cuban migrant landings in South Florida.

   Figures released Friday by the U.S. Border Patrol show that more Cuban migrants have landed on South Florida beaches since Oct. 1 than have been interdicted in the Florida Straits during the same period.

   Victor Colon, a Border Patrol spokesman in South Florida, said at least 1,856 Cuban migrants have landed in the area since Oct. 1 – 599 more than the number of Cuban migrants interdicted by the U.S. Coast Guard in the same period. (The photo above, by Miami Herald staff photographer Tim Chapman, shows Eralia Perez Avila in the foreground, one of several Cuban migrants who arrived in March at Bay Harbor, north of Miami).

   The increases are consistent with the overall uptick in the number of Cubans leaving their homeland since Fidel Castro took ill in July 2006.

   A comparison of the two 12-month periods tracked by Homeland Security agencies since that event shows an increase in the number of Cuban departures from the island: 16,215 from Oct. 1, 2005 to Sept. 30, 2006 and 19,710 from Oct. 1, 2006 to Sept. 30, 2007.

   Meanwhile, from Oct. 1, 2007 to this week at least 9,535 Cubans are known to have left Cuba. Of those, 8,278 made it to the United States by boat and plane or by showing up along the Mexican border.

   The departure figure of 9,535 consists of Cuban migrants interdicted in the Florida Straits (1,257), Cuban migrants who have landed in South Florida beaches (1,856) and Cuban migrants who have shown up without documents along the Mexican border or at international airports (6,422).

   The figures came from the federal agencies that track Cuban migrants: U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Border Patrol. The Coast Guard tracks interdictions, Customs and Border Protection arrivals at the border and at international airports and the Border Patrol landings on South Florida beaches.

-- Alfonso Chardy

Cuban migrant smuggling explained

The recent incident involving Cuban reggaeton star Elvis Manuel (photo at left) has drawn attention once again to the Cuban migrant smuggling issue.

   Elvis Manuel’s mother in Havana, Irioska Maria Nodarse, indicated in a telephone interview with The Miami Herald Sunday that her son’s voyage might have been a migrant smuggling operation.

   Nodarse, 43, said she had more information but declined to provide details until she is certain about the fate of her 18-year-old son.

   He is presumed missing at sea. His mother said their boat took on water and then overturned throwing all those aboard into the water. She lost sight of her son after a big shadow came between him and her.

   Nodarse and Elvis Manuel left Cuba with 17 other people aboard the 25-foot boat that capsized in rough seas April 7. Nodarse and 13 others were rescued and held on a Coast Guard cutter until Saturday when she was repatriated to Cuba under the wet-foot/dry-foot policy that applies to undocumented Cuban migrants.

   While Nodarse would not disclose how her son’s trip was arranged and how much it might have cost, U.S. investigators who track Cuban migrant smugglers say passengers are generally charged $7,000 to $10,000 each but do not generally pay unless they reach U.S. soil. If migrants are interdicted at sea, they generally don’t have to pay, according to investigators.

   If the trip is successful, a boatload of 50 migrants – for example -- can mean up to half a million dollars for the smuggling ring.

   In an interview in September, Andrew Corsini, acting deputy special agent in charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Miami, detailed how Cuban migrant smuggling rings generally operate.

   I asked Corsini, who are the smugglers?

   “They are mostly Cuban,’’ he replied. “They are here in South Florida. I wouldn’t say they are located in any one particular area. These people go to great lengths to avoid law-enforcement detection. They are very careless in their operation. There’s been serious injury and even death to migrants trying to get in here.’’

   Then Corsini proceeded to outline, in general, how the smuggling groups find and transport migrants.

   “There are several steps that we have seen,’’ he said. “There’s basically an organizer or organizers here in the United States and they reach out to the community by getting recruiters and those recruiters are responsible to try to find out who in Cuba wants to come to the United States.

   “They find that out by going to the community and speaking to family members through personal acquaintances and they try to get a list of who wants to come here. The organizers will recruit special drivers, the crewmen, to operate the vessels from here to Cuba.

   “These organizers take care of everything involved in the trip. They ensure the vessels have fuel, GPS, charts, locations for pickups.

   “In Cuba there are basically three steps. The names will be brought down to Cuba and there’ll be one individual involved in the group down there, like a guide, and he will find those people on the list.

   “A second individual will meet the people on a given date and guide them down to a barrier island off the Cuban coast

   “And a third individual will be involved and he will actually go out on a small boat and meet the southbound vessel and guide that vessel in to pick up the individuals and guide it back out past the barrier island.’’

   U.S. officials believe that Cuban migrant smuggling trips have increased.

   The number of Cuban migrants leaving Cuba has increased as well.

   They come by boat directly across the Florida Straits or across the Yucatan Channel to Cancun and then overland through Mexico to the Southwest border.

   In fact, the number of Cuban migrants arriving via the Mexican border is now larger than the number of Cuban migrants showing up on boats in South Florida or the Florida Straits.

   According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, at least 5,784 Cuban migrants have appeared at the border from Oct. 1 to Tuesday. At least 2,820 Cuban migrants have landed in South Florida or been interdicted in the Florida Straits since Oct. 1, according to the U.S. Coast Guard and the Border Patrol.

-- Alfonso Chardy

Cuban migrant smuggling up

U.S. officials are tracking more Cuban migrant smuggling voyages across the Florida Straits, but a more popular route has emerged across the Yucatan Channel.

Though the Yucatan crossing takes longer than the Florida Straits stretch, Cuban migrant smugglers believe it is more of a sure thing.

It’s not that the Yucatan crossing is safer. It’s that migrant loads are less likely to be interdicted in the crossing from southern Cuba to Cancun than in the crossing from northern Cuba to the Florida Keys.

   Increased interdictions means less money for migrant smugglers.

  According to federal investigators who track Cuban migrant smuggling rings, smugglers don’t get paid unless migrants make it ashore. If the migrants are intercepted at sea and returned to Cuba, no money is paid, according to these investigators.

   Under the wet-foot/dry-foot policy, Cuban migrants who make it to U.S. soil get to stay while those stopped at sea are generally repatriated – though a few have been taken to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo for resettlement in third countries.

   In the picture above, one of the most recent groups of Cuban migrants that made it ashore rests on a sidewalk in Bal Harbour March 12. The group consisted of 18 people including Eralia Perez Avila, in foreground of picture taken by Miami Herald photographer Tim Chapman.

   Not all Cuban migrant trips are the result of smuggling operations, but Coast Guard officials say that these days they see more Cuban migrants in go-fast boats than before when the vessels were rafts or homemade contraptions.

   Evidence that the Yucatan crossing is now the preferred alternative route lies in the number of Cuban migrants now showing up at the Mexican border.

   More than 5,000 Cuban migrants have shown up along the border with Mexico since Oct. 1 – compared to the less than 3,000 who have landed in South Florida or who have been interdicted in the Florida Straits during the same period.

   Interest in the Cuban migrant issue was rekindled last week when friends and fans of Cuban reggaeton star Elvis Manuel disclosed that he had left Cuba with his mother. His mother was intercepted in one boat and returned to Cuba Saturday, but Elvis Manuel remained unaccounted for Sunday.

   Since Fidel Castro took ill in July 2006, the number of Cubans leaving the island has steadily increased.

   Last year, for example, 3,197 Cuban migrants were intercepted in the Florida Straits – the largest number stopped at sea in a single year since the 1994 rafter exodus when 37,191 Cuban migrants were spotted heading toward South Florida.

-- Alfonso Chardy

New visa plan said to shorten wait

Washington has instituted a new program to enable Cuban emigrants to join their relatives in the United States and hopes to issue 20,000 visas a year, as agreed in a 1995 treaty with Cuba, Consul General Sean Murphy said Thursday in Havana.
Under the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program, emigrants will be given a "parole" document to enter the United States, instead of staying in Cuba to apply for permanent legal residence. The "parole" is a temporary authorization to travel and would be replaced in the United States by a residence permit.
The procedure, formulated last November, drastically shortens the emigrants' waiting period, U.S. officials claim. Under the previous rules, Cubans might have to wait for a visa for up to 10 years, now, the waiting period will be no more than 10 weeks.
According to the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana, approximately 12,000 visa petitioners were notified that their family members are eligible for the plan. To date, more than 5,000 of them have asked to participate.
For a description of the program and a Q&A, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro

More Cuban migrants arrive at Mexican border

Cuban migrants have typically arrived by boat in South Florida.

But increasingly, they are arriving by land.

Figures released last week by U.S. Customs and Border Protection showed once again that more Cubans are using the land route than the sea route to reach the United States.

   Between Oct. 1 and March 24, a week ago Monday, at least 5,118 Cuban migrants arrived via the Mexican border.

   That’s more than the number combined of Cuban migrants who reached South Florida by boat and who were interdicted at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard during the same time period: 2,767.

   Cuban migration experts say the Mexican border route is becoming more popular with Cuban migrants because it seems more of a sure thing than a sea voyage. It isn’t a question of safety, it’s more a question of making sure you get to U.S. soil.

   The Coast Guard seems to be interdicting more Cubans at sea, the majority of whom are then returned to the island.

   Mexican authorities, on the other hand, seem less likely to stop Cuban migrants making the crossing between Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula, the preferred arrival point in Mexico.

   After reaching Yucatan at Cancun or Isla Mujeres, Cuban migrants who are caught on arrival are generally detained (see picture above) and then allowed to proceed to the U.S. border by bus, car or plane.

   The Cuban migrants then enter the United States under the wet foot/dry foot policy.

-- Alfonso Chardy

Is a new Cuban exodus possible?

It may be just a statistical coincidence, or perhaps an indicator of things to come. But here's what's going on with Cuban migrants.

   In the three years before the 1994 rafter exodus from Cuba, when 37,191 migrants from the island showed up in the Florida Straits, the number of people escaping their homeland by boat steadily increased year by year between 1991 and 1993.

   In 1991 the Coast Guard reported 1,936 Cuban migrants; in 1992, 2,336 and in 1993 3,687.

   In the last five years, the number of Cuban migrants has been steadily rising year by year, except in 2006 when interceptions dipped slightly: 1,464 in 2003; 1,499 in 2004; 2,952 in 2005; 2,293 in 2006 and 3,197 last year.

   In fact, the number of Cuban migrants interdicted by the Coast Guard last year was the largest number stopped at sea in a single year since the 1994 rafter crisis.

   Of course, conditions in Cuba – though never optimal – are not what they were in the 1990s when the island went through the so-called “special period,’’ a dearth of economic resources as a result of the loss of more than $4 billion in annual aid from the Soviet Union following the collapse of eastern European Communism and the fall of the Berlin wall.

   No one in authority is predicting an imminent new exodus from Cuba, although Homeland Security agencies – including the Coast Guard – periodically conduct mass migration exercises in South Florida.

   But in Cuba, it seems, rumors are spreading about a possible new exodus.

   This is what a young Cuban recently told University of Miami students during an Internet video chat:

   “I hear many comments on the street, that a new 1994 is possible,’’ the young man said. “I get frightened when I hear talk of an opening because there are many comments on the street that there will be new rafters, that a new 1994 is coming and I get frightened and I believe Washington gets frightened even more because if at this moment there is a small opening toward the shore, not one Cuban will remain in Cuba.’’

   Reporters witnessed and recorded the video chat but were asked not to identify Cuban participants to shield them from possible Cuban government reprisals.

   Since Fidel Castro took ill in July 2006, the number of Cubans leaving the island has steadily increased – year by year. Cuba experts are split on whether this flow foreshadows a new mass migration, but recently-arrived Cuban migrants say the reason more people are leaving is uncertainty toward the future, lack of change even without Fidel, lack of economic opportunities overall and little future for the young generations.

   As for the Coast Guard, officials would not say whether a mass migration was possible – but they noted that what they are seeing is more Cuban migrants in smuggling boats.

   “We are interdicting more vessels and I think we are interdicting more vessels with more people in them,’’ said Chief Dana Warr, a Coast Guard spokesman in Miami. “And we are sending more interdicted people back to Cuba.

   “We started seeing an increase in go-fast boat use for illegal migration in the early 2000s instead of rafts or rustic vessels with one to half a dozen people in them. Each year we only interdicted a small number of rafts. Most now are in go-fasts with an average of from 20 to 40 people per vessel.’’

  -- Alfonso Chardy

Why thousands of Cubans have been ordered deported

As a rumor spread recently that federal immigration authorities planned to round up Mariel refugees whose names appear on a deportation list, people interested in the subject wondered why these people had been marked for removal – a total of 2,746.

   They also asked why an additional 29,000 Cubans who are not on the Mariel list have been ordered deported over the years by U.S. immigration judges.

   While the specific records of each of the 31,746 Cuban nationals marked for deportation are not public, immigration officials have said that in the vast majority of cases the reason for removal is a criminal conviction.

   Under laws passed by Congress in 1996, any foreign national convicted of an aggravated felony as defined by U.S. immigration law must be placed in deportation proceedings – and immigration judges generally order deportation of criminal convicts.

   However, U.S. immigration authorities delay deportations if the nationals’ country of origin refuses to take them back. This is the case of Cuba, which generally has refused to accept its nationals who have been ordered deported by immigration judges in the United States.

   Other countries also have refused to take their nationals back in recent years, but the United States has continued to pressure those nations to change policies. Not so in the case of Cuba, which has only agreed to take back the specific individuals on the list of 2,746 Mariel refugees marked for deportation.

   Of the 2,746 people on the list, 1,694 have been repatriated, according to figures released recently by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. An additional 61 people on the list have died since the deportation agreement was reached with Cuba in 1984. This means that 991 Mariel Cubans on the list are still in the United States.

   Officials say that a majority of the 2,746 are criminal convicts – but that anywhere from 90 to 100 are patients with mental problems.

   As for the 29,000 non-Mariel list Cubans ordered deported over the years, again the majority have aggravated felonies in their records.

   U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has said that the 29,000 includes more than 10,000 Cubans who arrived during the 1980 Mariel boatlift but are not on the deportation list. The balance are non-Mariel Cubans, also the majority with aggravated felony convictions.

   Incidentally, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement – in response to the roundup rumor – said there is no change in the deportation arrangement.

   “There has been no change regarding the removal of Cuban nationals from the United States,’’ said ICE spokesman Ivan Ortiz. “After the Mariel boatlift mass migration in 1980, the U.S. and Cuban governments agreed that 2,746 specific individuals would be returned to Cuba. To date, 1,694 of those individuals have been returned; and we are aware that an additional 61 have since died. As has been the case since the 1980s, when these individuals are encountered, they are deported.’’

   -- Alfonso Chardy

Cuban emigres analyze Havana meeting

The Cuban émigrés who attended a meeting in Havana with Cuban officials last week have returned to the countries and cities where they live, including at least three from Miami.

   Broadcasters Francisco Aruca and Max Lesnik and activist Andres Gomez attended the three-day meeting that began March 19 at the Hotel Nacional in Havana.

   Aruca, whose Ayer in Miami program airs on WOCN 1450 AM, said the main message of the meeting was a desire by the Cuban government to “normalize’’ relations with Cuban expatriates.

  He said Cuban officials left the impression that their goal is to have the same type of relations with expatriates that Mexican consulates have with Mexican immigrants – where the Mexican government looks out for the well being and rights of its citizens living abroad.

   “The main message is that they are seeking a greater normalization with Cubans living outside Cuba,’’ said Aruca.

   He added that Cuban officials, within the context of improved contacts with émigrés, are discussing ways to distinguish between Cubans who consider themselves expatriates and those who view themselves as exiles.

   Lesnik, whose show Radio Miami is also broadcast on WOCN, said that for him the meeting’s main message is that Cuban officials will only discuss changes in Cuba with Cuban émigrés who oppose the U.S. trade embargo against the island and who oppose terrorist attacks against Cuba.

   Exiles who support the embargo or terrorism against Cuba, he said, would not be heard.

   While some Cuban émigrés, including Lesnik and Aruca, expected the Cuban government to possibly announce the elimination of exit permits for Cubans wishing to travel abroad, Aruca said the issue did not come up during the meeting.

   Aruca said some senior Cuban officials, like Cuban foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque (above), mentioned the issue during news conferences when reporters asked, but that the question itself was not discussed in meeting sessions.

   Gomez, head of the Antonio Maceo Brigade, could not be reached for comment. Gomez was singled out for special recognition by the Cuban government during the meeting.

   The Antonio Maceo Brigade was formed by young Cubans whose parents took out of Cuba after Fidel Castro seized power in 1959, but who remained supportive of the Cuban revolution.

   -- Alfonso Chardy

Cuban migrant departures still high

While more Cuban migrants are being interdicted at sea, more are also eluding the U.S. Coast Guard and making it ashore.

Since Oct. 1, at least 1,580 Cuban migrants have landed in South Florida – almost half the number that arrived the previous fiscal year that ran from Oct. 1, 2006 to Sept. 30, 2007.

That’s also more than the number of Cuban migrants stopped at sea by the Coast Guard between Oct. 1 and Tuesday: 1,187.

   Both the landings and the interdictions are a reflection of the increasing number of Cubans leaving the island since Fidel Castro took ill in July 2006.

Overall, the total number of Cubans who left the island headed for the United States in fiscal year 2005 amounted to 14,236. That number rose to 19,710 in fiscal year 2007.

These figures consist of Cubans who leave the island but are intercepted and largely repatriated by the Coast Guard, those who make it ashore and those who arrive at airports and the border and seek to stay under the wet foot/dry foot policy.

Under that policy, Cubans who are stopped at sea are generally returned to the island, or taken to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for possible resettlement in a third country; and those who reach U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay.

Figures for the unfolding 2008 fiscal year that began Oct. 1 show that the Cuban migrant flow continues.

At least 8,457 Cubans left the island from Oct. 1 to Tuesday, with only 1,187 being stopped at sea, according to figures compiled by the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

With still nine months left in the year, the number of Cuban migrants is expected to grow – although it’s still unclear if the figure this fiscal year will exceed last year’s.

   For a breakdown on Cuban migrant departures, see this chart: Download cuban_migrant_figures.doc

-- Alfonso Chardy

No change in Mariel deportation arrangement, U.S. says

Under a little-known agreement with Cuba dating back to 1984, a precise number of Mariel refugees – 2,746 – can be deported to the island.

   The list consists largely of criminal convicts but also about 90 to 100 patients with mental problems.

   The 2,746 are the only Cuban migrants who can be systematically deported  to the island. All other Cuban exiles, once on U.S. soil, are generally protected from deportation to Cuba – even if they break the law and are convicted of aggravated felonies.

   More than 29,000 Cuban exiles have been ordered deported by immigration judges over the years, but their removal has been held in abeyance pending a change of political conditions in Cuba – more than just Fidel Castro resigning as president and his younger brother Raul taking over.

   To date, 1,694 of the 2,746 specific individuals on the Mariel deportation list have been repatriated, according to U.S. figures released this week. An additional 61 people on the list have died since the agreement was reached in the 1980s, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.