Cubans take Mexican route to dry foot status in US

NY Times:

Cubans are migrating to the United States in the greatest numbers in over a decade, and for most of them the new way to get north is first to head west — to Mexico — in a convoluted route that avoids the United States Coast Guard.

American officials say the migration, which has grown into a multimillion-dollar-a-year smuggling enterprise, has risen sharply because many Cubans have lost hope that Raúl Castro, who took over as president from his brother Fidel in 2006, will make changes that will improve their lives. Cuban authorities contend that the migration is more economic than political and is fueled by Washington’s policy of rewarding Cubans who enter the United States illegally.

In fact, unlike Mexicans, Central Americans and others heading to the southwestern border of the United States, the Cubans do not have to sneak across. They just walk right up to United States authorities at the border, benefiting from lax Mexican enforcement and relying on Washington’s “wet foot, dry foot” policy, which gives them the ability to become permanent residents if they can reach United States soil.

That is what José Luis Savater, 45, a refrigerator repairman from Havana, did in early October to reach southern Florida, which remains the goal for most migrating Cubans.

It took Mr. Savater almost four days to reach Isla Mujeres, Mexico, a coastal island, in a rickety boat made of wood, fiberglass and aluminum and powered by a jury-rigged motor used for irrigating fields. The 15 men and one woman with him took turns bailing.

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But his next step was far easier: a flight to Matamoros, a border town just across from Brownsville, Tex., with the help of money wired from relatives in Florida. Some American officials are calling this new approach — Cubans’ strolling up to border stations and seeking political asylum — dusty foot.

Statistics make it clear that although the route is considerably longer, Cubans believe that traveling through Mexico from the tiny bayside village of Cortés and other new launching spots on the western side of Cuba increases their odds of reaching Miami. Almost twice as many — 11,487 — took it in fiscal 2007, which ended in September, as in fiscal 2005.

By comparison, the Coast Guard intercepted just 2,861 Cubans crossing the Florida Straits in fiscal 2007, and 4,825 others eluded American authorities, reached United States soil and, under the “wet foot, dry foot” policy, applied for residency, according to the Coast Guard.

The figures show that in fiscal 2007, migration from the island reached its highest level since 35,000 Cubans left in a mass exodus in 1994.

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The new route is not just diverting migrants. Smugglers are shifting too, resulting in turf battles that are believed to be behind a string of killings over the summer of Cuban nationals in the Yucatán Peninsula, where many of the migrants come ashore. That area is also crisscrossed by narcotics traffickers, and there is fear that the two businesses could merge.

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That is a lot of people to be fleeing a paradise with free health care. Why do they even want to come to the US where your supposed to work and get employers to buy insurance? Michael Moore and Hillary must be distraught that Cubans are making this choice at great risk. It makes you think that things under communism are just hopeless. Why aren't these people going to Venezuela? No, the only people going their are terrorist sponsoring leaders like Iran's or Hollywood useful idiots. Socialism, it is what makes you want to leave home.