Mexico agreed on Monday to deport Cubans who sneak illegally through Mexican territory to reach the US, a step toward cutting off an increasingly violent and heavily used human trafficking route.
Signed by Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa, the agreement also criticized US policy that generally allows Cubans who reach US territory to stay, while turning back most caught at sea.
It takes effect in one month.
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 US Coast Guard and reach Florida to qualify for US residency.
The Department of Homeland Security said 11,126 used the Mexico route last year, compared with just 1,055 who landed in the Miami area.
Before Monday, Mexico rarely sent back Cubans caught entering the country illegally. Many were held for a time, then were given 30-day transit visas to continue on to Texas, where Cubans present only identity documents and undergo medical and background checks before being welcomed to the US.
Under the new agreement, Mexico agreed to deport Cubans found illegally in Mexico — both those who arrive from their native island by boat and those who come up through Central America.
Both countries agreed to protect the human rights of migrants, but it wasn’t clear whether Mexico could give asylum to Cubans who claim political persecution back home. The agreement also allows Cuba to reserve the right to deny entry to anyone it sees as a security risk.
Perez Roque said the agreement would lead to “the immense majority of Cubans being repatriated.”
Approximately 2,000 Cubans are being held at Mexican immigration detention centers.
“I am sure that this memorandum of understanding is going to significantly reduce attempts to use Mexico as a route to getting to the United States,” he said.
But Andy Gomez, a senior fellow and assistant provost at University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies, said stopping the wave of migrants coming through Mexico would be difficult because smugglers often pay off Mexican authorities.
Even if the smuggling route through Mexico is successfully cut off, Gomez predicted that Cuban migrants would land in the Florida Panhandle, northeastern Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.
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