By Dianne Solis
10:24 a. m. on June 21, 2022 CDT — Updated at 12:06 p. m. m. june 24, 2022 CDT
EAGLE PASS – A smile was drawn on the face of Yoima Paisan-Viltre, a Cuban migrant, after traversing the emerald waters of the Rio Grande and being released through U. S. border guards. Flag held her black and curly hair.
“I almost can’t. I arrived,” he shouted.
The arrival was located on a small border of the city of another 29,000 people on the Rio Grande that has become one of the largest access positions to the United States. Paisan-Viltre is one of the lucky immigrants. This sparsely populated Texas border region is the main direction for Cubans.
Most likely, the current exodus from the island nation will surpass the historic Mariel boat hoisting of 1980.
As of May of this year, nearly 140,000 Cubans were captured through federal immigration agents, at the time of the largest global migration observed in more than two decades.
They regularly make the crossing with flights to Nicaragua, which has facilitated visa requirements. Then, they travel overland through two other Central American countries and Mexico.
The vast majority, nearly 98%, were temporarily deported under the questionable public fitness order known as Title 42. Instead, they were allowed to enter the United States and are on humanitarian parole or will face immigration judges where they can present a defense. stay.
His remedy illustrates the deep chaos of a formula governed by law, policy notes, court orders, and diplomatic relations that can hook all of the above.
Paisan-Viltre sees it in undeniable terms of freedom and love. He came here for freedom, he says, and he wants to sink the economy of his homeland. Her husband traveled to Houston before her, she said, proudly displaying a photo of him on her mobile phone.
The arrival of so many Cubans is the result of a mixture of economic and geopolitical forces.
“It’s the best storm,” said Dr. Michael Bustamante, a Cuban historian at the University of Miami. “For starters, Cuba is in the midst of its worst economic crisis in 30 years. This crisis predates COVID. Peor for an economy that depends as much as Cuba’s on tourism.
The region’s politics are the key to expanding the number. Nicaragua, a best political friend of Havana, said Cubans can enter their country without a visa last November.
“Suddenly, Cubans had a closer point of visa waiver to the continental Americas. . . from where they could start an adventure north,” Bustamante said.
Many Cubans are treated and released into the United States with humanitarian permission, which is a component of the Immigration Act rather than Title 42 of the Public Health Act. The humanitarian permit would put Cubans on their way to legal residency under the Cuba Adjustment Act, a feature of complex immigration laws. But Cubans obviously avoid a Title 42 expulsion that occurs regularly within hours of arrival on the other side of the Rio Grande.
A spokesman for customs and border coverage said it had no statistics on the number of Cubans who have been granted humanitarian permission.
Another CBP spokesperson said soft use of Title 42 could be limited for a number of reasons, adding that “Mexico’s ability to get those people. “
Sending Cubans back to Cuba, under Title 42, is a simple, migration expert option.
“We don’t have complete diplomatic relations with Cuba,” said Theresa Cardinal Brown, a former DHS official who worked in the Republican and Democratic administrations from 2005 to 2011 and is now at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington. “And we want to be working with those governments to settle for the return of their other parents. We can’t bring other random people to a country. . . They also have sovereignty. And we want to be with the government to settle for the return behind his other friends.
Cardinal Brown said she has never before noticed so much chaos in immigration policy. In 2000, border patrol arrests of immigrants reached about 200,000 or more in a month, as in recent months at the southwest border, according to CBP. parent or legal guardian, for example, has an express policy toward them.
“What it can do is decide us more day by day through the latest resolution or injunction,” he said, noting that a new court ruling provides stronger protections for migrant families who care about violence.
“None of these migratory phenomena are the product of singleness, right?It is the product of a number of things. And there is no single solution.
For some, chaos is an opportunity for Cubans, Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a D. C. nonprofit.
“This is the least risky era of fashion memory,” he said. “Even Mariel’s boat lift is more dangerous. “
On a personal ranch lot near a pecan orchard near the Rio Grande, the floor was filled with remnants of migrant journeys. Mexican SIM cards for cell phones, a children’s sneaker, an empty purple backpack. In the dusty earth were several empty bottles of serum, a rehydration serum that is the holy water of migration.
Almost, Sergio Rojas and other migrants surrendered in single acts when several Border Patrol agents ordered them to march to green and white Border Patrol buses in the bush. Beyond Rojas, in the soft northern sunlight, were the rusty bollards of the border. wall. Rojas wore gray shorts, t-shirts and rain shoes that squeaked when walking.
Why did you come to america? For the repression of his homeland, he said. His people said they were all from Cuba.
But the migrants’ disparate remedy can be noticed surprisingly when they cross the river into Mexico. Many from El Salvador and Honduras are on the streets of Piedras Negras, where they were deported under Title 42.
Across the river, the Mexican sister city that is far richer than Eagle Pass and is five times larger, artwork fills the streets near the International Bridge. One shows a pair of hands, one painted in the colors of the American flag, the other with the Mexican flag in a handshake.
But the city is located in the Mexican border state of Coahuila, and the U. S. State Department is located in the Mexican border state of Coahuila. The U. S. Department of Homeland Security warns visitors to reconsider their visit due to crime and kidnapping.
In Pidras, migrants piled up in the streets near a Catholic shelter and in a municipal park near the border bridge. “Dignified Border,” reads a sign at the shelter, freshly painted banana yellow and sage green. None of those who agreed to interviewed were from Cuba, but from Central America.
Central Americans told stories of hardship, of a preference for surrendering, but also of concern about returning to their countries of origin because of violence directed against members of the family circle. Rent and machetes, extortion and machetes, filled a verbal exchange with a circle of relatives of asylum seekers.
A 16-year-old lifted his blouse to show scars on his thin back that looked like a series of zigzags. “Gangs are,” his Salvadoran mother said.
In Mexico life is and they sleep in a church, she says. They have been on the road for a year.
“They say, ‘Talk. Tell them about your case. ‘ “
But when the circle of relatives crossed the river in mid-May, they said no one had asked them about the family circle’s fears. She said they had to remain anonymous for fear of torture and abuse.
“I don’t need to go back to Honduras. I just can’t,” she said, as she sank into her husband’s arms. After a sob, he ends his prayer, “to suffer more. “
On the riverbank, the shift between anguish and joy is striking. At Elgle Pass, the atmosphere among Cuban immigrants cheers.
At Mission: Border Hope, just outside of Eagle Pass, Cubans arrived at the warehouse shelter to receive loose meals, change clothes, or arrange trips within the United States. Often, your first stop is the San Antonio transportation hub, less than a three-hour drive.
On a recent afternoon, tired Cubans were about to leave for the United States. When asked how he felt, a Cuban replied, almost musically, “Bee-you-te-full,” he said in English with an accent as he boarded the bus.
Diane Solis. Dianne covers immigration and social justice issues. The laureate is an alumnus of the Wall Street Journal and a former foreign correspondent founded in Mexico. She was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard and holds degrees in journalism from Northwestern University and California State University.