Four years after the first Cuban migration crisis in Central America, about 600 Cubans and another 120 migrants from Haiti and Africa are again in Panama as part of a “freedom caravan” to the United States.
“We want to go on! We want to go on!” the migrants are seen shouting at officials of Panama’s National Border Service in videos posted on social media over the weekend.
Their goal is to reach the United States and ask for asylum, although U.S. regulations and policies that once benefited Cuban migrants have changed significantly.
In 2017, former President Barack Obama eliminated the so-called “wet foot, dry foot” policy that allowed most Cubans who set foot on U.S. territory to remain. Nonetheless, Cubans continue to arrive in the United States. Most request political asylum, a legal process that requires proof they would be persecuted if returned to the island.