Officials from Central American countries met in Guatemala City this week to create a plan to help around 8,000 Cubans who are stalled in Costa Rica reach the U.S. The countries have decided to provide flights for the Cuban migrants from Costa Rica to El Salvador then bus them to Mexico where they can cross the U.S. border.
There has been a huge spike of outward migration from Cuba since the U.S. restored diplomatic ties with Cuba. Many Cubans fear that this could signal the end of the “Wet-Foot, Dry Foot” policy.
The 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act started the policy that states if a Cuban leaves his home country and is caught at sea then they are sent back to Cuba, but if they make it to dry U.S. soil they are put on a fast track to citizenship. This makes them eligible for welfare benefits and can receive a green card after a year in the U.S. and are not subject to visa caps.
Around 44,000 Cubans reached the U.S.-Mexico border during the 2015 fiscal year. That is more than twice the number that came in 2014, which was 17,466 Cubans. An influx of Cuban immigrants hasn’t happened since 1994, which led to the “Wet-Foot, Dry Foot” policy.
In response to this mass exodus Nicaragua closed its border to Cuban migrants in November leaving many stuck in Costa Rica unable to complete the journey through Central America to the U.S.
On December 18 Costa Rica said that they would stop issuing transit visas for Cubans and said any who arrive without a visa would be deported. However, the cost of housing the migrants has stretched the country’s resources.
Now Costa Rica has asked for the help of other Central American countries to remove the Cubans from the country and get them to the U.S. Costa Rica's foreign minister, Manuel Gonzalez, emphasized that “the solution emerging is an absolute exception and only for those people who entered national territory legally."
Officials from Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, Mexico, Costa Rica and the International Organization for Migration took part in the meeting.
Read more on this story at Reuters.com.
