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Immigration See other Immigration Articles Title: Mexico sends Cubans home under new accord Mexico is sending illegal Cuban migrants home for the first time under a new accord aimed at cutting off an increasingly violent human-trafficking route to the United States, an official said Thursday. Before Mexico signed the agreement with Cuba in October, authorities rarely sent migrants back to the communist island. The Cubans were being deported from the resort city of Cancun, said Luis Alberto Molina, an immigration official in Quintana Roo state, where Cancun is located. Molina said he could not give further details. An Associated Press photographer in Cancun saw about 60 immigrants being loaded on two buses early Thursday, and some shouted out that they were being sent to Cuba. A Cuban Embassy official said he had no information but was looking into the matter. Cuban migrants in recent years have increasingly headed for Mexico _ often to the coast near Cancun _ then overland to Texas because it has become so hard to dodge the U.S. Coast Guard and reach Florida by sea to qualify for U.S. residency. Until now, Cubans were detained briefly in Mexico, then given 10- to 30-day exit orders. That allowed them to continue on to Texas, where all that is required of Cuban migrants are identity documents and medical and background checks before they are welcomed to America. But Mexico has become frustrated with the migrations as violent traffickers become increasingly involved in moving them across the country. Several Cuban-Americans believed to be involved in smuggling have been killed in recent years in or around Cancun, about 120 miles (195 kilometers) southeast of Cuba. In June, gunmen snatched 33 Cubans off a government bus headed to an immigration station in southern Mexico, possibly to extort money from them or their smugglers. Many of those migrants later turned up in the U.S. Mexico now provides armed police escorts for all detained Cuban migrants. Immigration authorities can still grant asylum on a case-by-case basis to migrants under the accord, which has no guarantee that those returned to Cuba will not face reprisals. Both countries can reserve the right to deny entry to anyone it sees as a security risk. The agreement, signed by Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa, also criticized the U.S. "wet-foot, dry-foot" policy, which generally allows Cubans who set foot in the U.S. to stay, while turning back most caught at sea. The Department of Homeland Security said 11,126 Cuban migrants used the Mexico route last year, compared to just 1,055 who showed up in the Miami area. Perez Roque said the agreement would lead to the majority of Cubans being repatriated. Approximately 2,000 Cubans are currently being held in Mexican immigration detention centers. _____ Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: X-15 (#0)
But Mexico has become frustrated with the migrations as violent traffickers become increasingly involved in moving them across the country. Several Cuban-Americans believed to be involved in smuggling have been killed in recent years in or around Cancun, about 120 miles (195 kilometers) southeast of Cuba. Mexico is just pissed that drug trafficking Cubans have cut into Mexico's action. This has nothing to do with border control co-operation with the USA. It has everything to do with greed and drug profiteering.
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