Cubans weigh options for migration to U.S. after new Biden rules

Cubans frantic to escape economic crisis at home weighed options on how to move to the U.S. after the Biden administration rolled out new immigration rules.

HAVANA — Cubans frantic to escape economic crisis at home weighed up options this week on how to move to the United States after the Biden administration rolled out a new set of rules at the U.S.-Mexico border that dramatically change the landscape for the island´s would-be migrants.

The new regulations block Cubans at the border, putting the brakes on a route to the United States favored by many: a flight to Nicaragua, which lifted its visa requirement in 2021 on Cubans, and then an overland journey north through Central America and Mexico to the border.

But the fresh regulations also open a new avenue to enter the United States legally, aimed at bringing order to a record-breaking exodus in 2022 of upwards of 220,000 Cuban migrants encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“It remains to be seen whether Cubans will wait their turn in the legal migration system, or continue to attempt to cross the land and sea borders of the United States without official authorization,” said Jorge Duany, a professor with Florida International University in Miami.

In October 2022, the United States imposed a similar “carrot and stick” approach to migrants from Venezuela. Venezuelans arriving at the southwest U.S. border plunged from 1,100 per day to under 200 per day in just one week, U.S. figures show.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/cubans-weigh-options-migration-us-new-biden-rules-rcna65264

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