Cubans are taking a dangerous journey through Central America to get into the United States through its border with Mexico as the Obama administration holds onto the five-decade-old policy of allowing Cubans asylum if they can make it onto U.S. soil.
Randy Cuevas entered through Laredo, Texas on January 14 by taking advantage of the rule,
USA Today reports. Cuevas made the same deals with smugglers that people from other countries do, but found a far different reception from U.S. authorities than those who made the trip with him.
"You're left conflicted," the 30-year-old Cuevas told USA Today. "I met Colombians, Arabs, Haitians, all kinds of people doing the same thing. Yet the Cuban passes. It hurt me seeing how depressed they'd get when we would leave. But it's not the Cubans' fault. That's the law."
Americans are more familiar with Cubans making the 90-mile journey across the Gulf of Mexico to get into the United States, but thousands have been coming through Mexico since Cubans can visit Ecuador without a visa.
They then move over land 2,000 miles, facing multiple dangers along the way.
But in November Nicaragua put a halt to Cubans traveling through that country. That stopped thousands in Costa Rico, but Guatemala finally agreed to accept airline flights to allow Cubans to continue their trek north.
Two Florida Republicans, Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Carlos Curbelo, both sons of Cuban exiles, have filed bills in Congress to limit entry to Cubans who are truly freeing persecution and not just seeking better economic opportunity. But the White House has resisted such a move as it is currently in talks to normalize relations with Cuba.
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