Cubans making risky boat trip to Florida, another immigration challenge for Biden administration

Hundreds of thousands of Cubans desperate to leave the island's flailing economy and reunite with family in the U.S. but unable to get visas in their own country have been forced to fly to Central America and make tortuous journeys north, or navigate the Florida Straits in rickety vessels.

More than 500 Cuban migrants have come ashore in the Florida Keys since last weekend. It is a dangerous 160-kilometre trip in often rickety boats, but more Cubans are taking the risk amid deepening and compounding political and economic crises at home.

"I would prefer to die to reach my dream and help my family. The situation in Cuba is not very good," Jeiler del Toro Diaz told The Miami Herald shortly after coming ashore on Tuesday in Key Largo.

Some also arrive by land, flying to Nicaragua, then travelling north through Honduras and Guatemala into Mexico. In the 2021-22 fiscal year, 220,000 Cubans were stopped at the U.S.-Mexican border, almost six times as many as the previous year.

The Biden administration on Thursday said it would immediately begin turning away Cubans as well as Haitians and Nicaraguans who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.It follows a plan announced in October to limit the rising number of Venezuelan migrants seen in preceding months.

Instead, the administration will accept 30,000 people per month from the four nations for two years and offer the ability to legally work, as long as they come legally, have eligible sponsors and pass vetting and background checks. These four affected nations are among those for whom migrant border crossings have risen most sharply, with no easy way to quickly return migrants to their home countries.

"This new process is orderly, it's safe and it's humane," said President Joe Biden. He said his message to those would-be migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua or Haiti without a U.S. sponsor was, "Do not just show up at the border."

It's a significant change to immigration rules, and itwill stand even if the U.S. Supreme Court ends Title 42, a public health law that Donald Trump's administration implemented at the beginning of the pandemic, which allows American authorities to turn away asylum seekers.

At sea, the Coast Guard tries to interdict Cuban migrants and return them. Since the U.S. government's new fiscal year began on Oct. 1, about 4,200 have been stopped at sea or about 43 a day. That was up from 17 per day in the previous fiscal year and just two per day during the 2020-21 fiscal year at the height of the pandemic.

WATCH | Biden announces new border policy:

Biden announces new border policy

2 years ago

Duration 2:16

Biden's administration announced they will use pandemic-era restrictions to expel Cuban, Nicaraguan and Haitian migrants caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. As well, up to 30,000 people will be allowed to immigrate legally every month from those three countries and Venezuela.

But an unknown number have made it to land and will likely get to stay. Migrants have landed at Dry Tortugas National Park, a group of seven islands 110 kilometres west of Key West, as well as Marathon, some 72 kilometres northeast of Key West.

Ramon Raul Sanchez with the Cuban-American group Movimiento Democracia went to the Keys to check on the situation. He told the AP that he met a group of 22 Cubans who had just arrived. They were standing along the main road, waiting for U.S. authorities to pick them up.

"There is a migration and humanitarian crisis, and it is necessary for the president to respond by helping local authorities," Sanchez said.

Cubans also among those trying to enter at southern border

Grappling with the biggest flood of Cuban migrants in decades, the U.S. reopened its long-closed legal pathway on Wednesday by resuming all visa services at its Embassy in Havana.

In addition to economic struggles exacerbated by the pandemic, Cubans also took note of their government's harsh response to rare protests on the island in 2021, which included hefty prison sentences doled out to minors.

In late December, U.S. authorities reported stopping Cubans 34,675 times along the Mexico border in November, up from 28,848 times in October.

Callan Garcia, a Florida immigration attorney, said most Cubans who reach U.S. soil are flagged "expedited for removal," as having entered the country illegally. But that does not mean they actually will be removed quickly, or ever.

Because the U.S. and Cuba do not have formal diplomatic relations, the American government has no way to repatriate them. Cubans are released but given an order that requires them to contact federal immigration authorities periodically to confirm their address and status. They are allowed to get work permits, driver's licences and Social Security numbers.

Garcia said many remain without official status the rest of their lives, including some Cubans who came in the 1980 Mariel boatlift.

WATCH |Planned expiry of Title 42 put off by court decision:

U.S. Supreme Court delays end of pandemic border restrictions

2 years ago

Duration 3:42

The U.S. Supreme Court has granted a last-minute extension to Title 42, a pandemic-era border restriction denying asylum to migrants first introduced under former president Donald Trump.

The full resumption of visa work at the Havana Embassy comes after a series of migration talks and visits by U.S. officials in recent months. Recent small steps are a far cry from relations under President Barack Obama, who eased some decades-long sanctions during his time in office, much of it undone by successor Donald Trump.

Under Biden, the U.S. has eased some restrictions on things like remittances and family travel from Miami to Cuba.

Title 42 limbo

The Biden administration has been heavily criticized by Republicans on the immigration front, but has been hamstrung to a significant degree by court decisions.

In turn, Biden accused Republicans on Thursday of "demagoguing" the immigration issue and not negotiating in good faith toward bipartisan reform. In the past, immigration reform has been in reach including on one occasion in which Trump would have received funding for aborder wall before Republicans pulled back.

The administration moved to end Title 42 restrictions last springbut Republican officials sued in response. The Supreme Court has kept the rules in place for now.

Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma:

Critics say Title 42 has encouraged repeated crossing attempts between border points after they're turned away from entering the asylum process.

"They go back, they try again, they try again," said Biden. "They can and do try and re-enter the United States, which makes the problem even worse."

Homeland Security officials stopped migrants 2.38 million times during fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the first time the number exceeded 2 million.

Immigration, as well asfentanyl production emanating from Mexican labs and making its way to the U.S. and Canada, are expected to be among the topics when Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are hosted by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador during a two-day summit beginning Monday.