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Politics : ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION THE FIGHT TO KEEP OUR DEMOCRACY -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (2543)	10/15/2007 9:47:16 PM
From: Ann Corrigan	Respond to of 3197

Just what we need, illegal Mexicans masquerading as Cubans >Rush of Cuban migrants use Mexican routes to U.S. By Marc Lacey Published: October 15, 2007 yahoonews.com CORTÉS, Cuba: Cubans are migrating to the United States in the greatest numbers in more than a decade, and for most of them the new way to get north is first to head west - to Mexico - in a convoluted route that avoids the U.S. Coast Guard. U.S. officials say the spike in migration is due to a lack of hope for change on the island, since Raúl Castro took over as president from his other brother Fidel last year. The Cuban authorities contend the migration is more economic than political. In fact, unlike Mexicans, Central Americans and others heading to the United States' southwest border, the Cubans do not have to sneak across. They just walk right up to United States authorities at the border, relying on Washington's so-called wet foot/dry foot policy, which gives Cubans the ability to become permanent residents if they can only reach American soil. That is what José Luis Savater, 45, a refrigerator repair man from Havana did recently to reach south Florida, which remains the goal for most migrating Cubans. It took Savater almost four days to reach the Mexican island of Isla Mujeres in a rickety boat made from wood, fiberglass and aluminum, powered by a jerry-rigged motor used for irrigating fields. The 15 men and one woman with him took turns bailing. "It's extremely dangerous," Savater recounted in a recent interview from Cancún. But his next step was far easier: a flight to the United States-Mexican border, with the help of money wired from relatives in south Florida. Some American officials are calling this new approach - Cubans strolling up to desert border stations and seeking political asylum - dusty foot. Statistics make clear that Cubans now believe the route, although considerably longer, boosts their odds of reaching Miami. Almost twice as many Cubans - 11,487 - used it as in 2005. By comparison, during the same time, the coast guard intercepted just 2,861 Cubans crossing the Florida Straits, and 4,825 others eluded American authorities and the applied for political asylum in the United States, according to the coast guard. The figures indicate a spike in migration from the island, which in fiscal 2007 was at its highest level since 35,000 Cubans left in a mass exodus in 1994. "The reason why people are willing to risk their lives to leave Cuba is the lack of hope and expectations," Sean Murphy, the U.S. Consul General in Havana, told reporters earlier this month. The new route is not just diverting migrants. Smugglers are shifting too, resulting in turf battles that are believed to be behind a string of murders in recent months of Cuban nationals in the Yucatan. The same place that Cubans are coming ashore is criss-crossed by narcotics traffickers and there is fear that the two businesses could merge. Safe houses have also been set up along the Mexican coast to help the Cubans elude Mexican authorities and avoid paying the fine. One Cuban who made it to Mexico said he was impressed by the organization of it all. Cuban rice and beans awaited him upon arrival in Mexico. Within days, he was off to the Texas border with instructions with what he should say to quickly enter the United States. Some Mexicans are even getting ideas from the Cubans. A trade is developing in Cuban identity documents and some savvy Mexican migrants are now practicing Cuban accents and rehearsing dramatic stories they intend to tell U.S. Border Patrol agents about the horrors they have suffered in Havana. Altogether, the issue has attracted the attention of officials from throughout the region, since Cubans sometimes go off track and land on other Caribbean islands or further south in Central America. The coast guard's aggressive patrols off the Florida Straight prompted the new route, most agree. The coast guard returns migrants who are caught at sea to Cuba, where authorities have said they will not take retribution against them. "It's practically Mission Impossible to go directly to Miami," said an American official who is tracking the issue but who did not have approval to speak on the record about it. In Mexico, however, the coast is far more loosely patrolled and, some say, local authorities are more likely to look the other way for a bribe. The rocky eastern shore of Isla Mujeres, a speck of an island near the resort town of Cancún, is a popular landing spot. Despite the presence of a Mexican Navy post there, Cuban boats come ashore regularly.