Cuban migrants arrive in Florida to uncertain future

KEY WEST (AP):

Yoandri Sánchez Sánchez arrived in the Florida Keys just before sunrise Thursday with 22 other Cubans on a makeshift, motorised raft they built themselves.

Their 100-mile (160-kilometre) journey from the communist island across the dangerous Florida Straits began on New Year’s Eve and was interrupted by heavy rain that forced them to take shelter on a small deserted island for a couple days. But after six days they finally made it, and Sanchez was overcome with joy.

“We came to work and to help our families in Cuba,” said Sánchez, who is among more than 4,400 migrants, mostly Cubans with some Haitians, who have arrived by boat in Florida since August as those two countries face deepening and compounding political and economic crises. Amid the influx in Florida and a much bigger one in Texas, the Biden administration announced new immigration rules Thursday.

Sánchez was waiting to receive documents at a Border Patrol office in the Keys that will allow him to enter the US and work, at least for now. Because Washington and Havana don’t have diplomatic relations, there is no way for the US government to send him and other Cubans back. He has family in Florida who can help him, but he left behind his parents, his wife, two brothers and two grandsons.

“What matters is that we are already here,” said Sánchez, who began crying.

Just hours after Sánchez and his group arrived, President Joe Biden signalled a tougher stance on migrants coming from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua, saying it would immediately start turning people from those countries who who cross the US-Mexico border illegally, as it has done with Venezuelans. However, it was not immediately clear what impact this would have on migrants who arrive in Florida.

Those who are stopped at sea are already taken back, Cuba will accept those. Almost 8,000 Cubans and Haitians have been interdicted since August, about 50 per day compared with 17 per day in the 2021-22 fiscal year and just two per day during the 2020-21 fiscal year. Officials said at least 65 migrants have died at sea since August.

Over the New Year’s weekend alone, more than 700 migrants, mostly Cubans, arrived in the Keys, including 337 who landed on the remote islands that compose Dry Tortugas National Park. They were taken Thursday by Coast Guard cutter 70 miles to the Keys for processing.

Florida officials have appealed to the US government to do more to deter migrants from making the risky trek.