The first trickle of a group of thousands of Cubans trying to reach the US crossed the Mexican border into Texas on Friday, ending a dangerous, months-long odyssey through the Americas.
A dozen or so Cubans were processed in an immigration office in the border town of Nuevo Laredo and walked out on the other side of the frontier in Laredo, Texas.
Under US law, they automatically get permission to stay and are put on a fast-track to permanent residency after one year.
Photo: Reuters
That welcome is the sweet reward the Cubans sought after a grueling trek through South and Central America that was fueled in part, and ironically, by the thaw in US-Cuban ties.
“We are happy because we achieved our goal,” said one of the Cubans, Randy Cuevas, 29, in a video posted on the Facebook page of Cubanos en Libertad, an organization which helps Cubans arriving in Texas.
“This was my dream, the dream of all Cubans,” said another, 20-year-old Lilian de Gonzalez.
The dozen who arrived late on Thursday and early Friday were among 180 who set out from Costa Rica this week, first by plane to El Salvador — skipping over Cuba ally Nicaragua, which would not let them pass — and then by bus through Guatemala to Mexico.
That bus trip alone took 13 hours. It was organized by regional governments and the International Organization for Migration.
Nearly 8,000 others remain stranded in Costa Rica, waiting since late last year to make the trip north to the US and the lure of a better life.
Thousands of Cubans have left the communist island in recent months over concerns that the re-establishment of US-Cuban diplomatic relations will prompt Washington to drop its policy of giving them automatic residence when they set foot in the US.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in