Political repression and bleak economic prospects remain the primary reasons cited by Cubans for migrating from the Communist-ruled island
By Julia Love
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, April 8 (Reuters) - Isel Rojas put his dream of leaving Cuba on hold when the United States ended a generous immigration policy for island residents. But watching coverage of migrant caravans heading from Central America toward the United States on Cuban television last year, he began to see a new path.
One morning in January, he woke up and told his wife he was finally ready. Fifteen days later, he was gone.
"If they can do it, why can't we?" said Rojas, a 48-year-old who worked in agriculture in the eastern city of Holguin, recalling the images of young men and families traveling en masse to the Mexico-U.S. border.
Rojas is now waiting to apply for U.S. asylum in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez, which has become a magnet for Cuban migrants.
Political repression and bleak economic prospects remain the primary reasons cited by Cubans for migrating from the Communist-ruled island, a Cold War foe of the United States. But some in Ciudad Juarez say news of the caravans also motivated them, giving them the impression the United States was accepting migrants.
Since early last year, the caravans have been a frequent target of U.S. President Donald Trump as he advocates for stricter immigration policies. Critics say the president's statements about the caravans, including a series of angry tweets, have ironically enlarged the groups and publicized asylum as a possible avenue to legal status.
"The person who created the media coverage and who drove the issue of the caravans has been President Trump," Tonatiuh Guillen, the head of Mexico's National Migration Institute, said on local radio last week.
The addition of Cubans to those flows is adding to the pressure on already overwhelmed shelters and border authorities in Mexico and the United States. More than 100,000 people were apprehended or presented themselves to authorities in March, the White House said on Friday, calling it the highest number in a decade. Trump has threatened a border shutdown or tariffs on Mexico in retaliation.
What's more, some say Trump's harder line on Cuban relations has contributed to a sense of gloom on the economically weak and tightly controlled island.
The White House and the Cuban government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mexico's migration institute declined to comment.
'TREATED LIKE EVERYONE ELSE'
Like Rojas, many Cubans who reached northern Mexico in recent months ultimately traveled with a smaller group, and caravans were not a factor for all who left. But a caravan of 2,600 migrants currently contained by authorities in southern Mexico, the largest this year, includes dozens from the island. Mexican immigration officials said they flew some 60 Cubans home on Friday.
In Ciudad Juarez, Cubans represent 75 to 80 percent of some 3,600 migrants in town, said Enrique Valenzuela, director of the state commission for population. The wait to apply for asylum is about two months, shelter directors say.
The bottleneck highlights a new reality: Cubans do not enjoy the same advantages they once did in the U.S. immigration system.
"For the first time this year, Cubans are being treated like everyone else," said Wilfredo Allen, a Miami-based lawyer who works with Cuban migrants. "The special door for the Cubans has already closed."
In 2017, U.S. President Barack Obama ended the "wet foot, dry foot" policy, which allowed Cubans who reached U.S. soil to stay but returned any intercepted at sea, triggering a decline in immigration from the island.
In the first five months of fiscal-year 2019, 6,289 Cubans turned up at ports of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border without papers. That number is on track to nearly double the total for the whole of fiscal-year 2018, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
While Cubans generally face slightly better chances of receiving asylum than Central Americans because their tales of political persecution are often more clear-cut, success is anything but assured, Allen said.
Allen estimates only 20 to 30 percent of his Cuban clients will win their cases.
That message has not reached those in Ciudad Juarez, many of whom sold their vehicles, businesses or homes to finance the trip. Some have literally bet the farm.
"They say that we have priority, that (the United States) will accept us in one form or another," said Rojas, who sold almost half his cattle. "They always accept us."
A NEW ROUTE
Cubans lucky enough to get a U.S. visa, to visit family for example, can fly there legally and are eligible to apply for residency after a year in the United States. For most though, reaching the United States is no easy feat.
Even before "wet foot, dry foot" ended, Cubans began forging new routes, flying into countries in Central and South America with loose visa requirements and then heading north. Only a few countries, such as Guyana, do not require visas for Cubans.
Last year, Panama made it easier for Cubans to come to the country to shop, creating another opening for some from the island to reach Central America.
Arasay Sanchez, 33, said she was browsing the internet in a park one day when she saw a story about the caravans.
After selling her house and most of her belongings, Sanchez flew into Panama on Jan. 25, she said.
She relied on a seven-page guide she inherited from Cubans who had traveled to the United States, detailing everything from where to sleep to where to buy a phone. On the trail, it was among her most valuable possessions – she carried it in her clothes.
The route ended in Ciudad Juarez, regarded by many Cubans as a safer and more orderly place to seek asylum than other more crowded Mexican border crossings, despite its reputation as one of the world's most violent cities. Ciudad Juarez, just south of El Paso, Texas, received relatively few asylum seekers until late last year.
Many are dismayed by the long wait they find, shelter directors say, and they are increasingly concerned about safety after reports of Cubans going missing in Mexico. Few leave the shelters, 10 migrants said in interviews.
Sanchez and her partner arrived in Ciudad Juarez in late February, moving from shelter to shelter and struggling with spicy Mexican food.
"Even the candy" has chile, she said, clutching the extra folds of fabric in her jeans to show she had lost weight.
Experts do not expect the flow of Cuban migrants to ebb anytime soon. Obama made it easier for Americans to travel to the island, generating new business. But that money dried up after Trump tightened the rules, said Pedro Freyre, a lawyer who studies the U.S.-Cuba relationship.
What is more, a gradual opening of the island's private sector triggered a backlash from conservatives, creating headaches for small businesses, Freyre said.
Reaching the United States would end a long quest for Reinaldo Ramirez, a 51-year-old construction contractor from the western town of Jaguey Grande. Starting in 2006, he tried and failed to reach Florida seven times by boat – including the day Obama canceled "wet foot, dry foot."
The new route has been just as arduous. After flying into Guyana in September, Ramirez and his wife had to hike across the Darien Gap, a remote stretch of jungle straddling Panama and Colombia. After they crossed the first time, Panamanian authorities deported them to Colombia, forcing them to repeat the trek.
Ramirez arrived in Ciudad Juarez about three weeks ago, and hundreds of asylum seekers are ahead of him in line. But he cannot help but feel that he is close.
"I've almost achieved my objective, my American dream," he said. (Reporting by Julia Love; additional reporting by Jose Luis Gonzalez in Ciudad Juarez, Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City, Sarah Marsh in Havana, Kristina Cooke in San Francisco and Yeganeh Torbati in Washington; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Peter Cooney)
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