Catherine Shoichet at CNN reports on the Panama program underway to fly thousands of Cuban migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border as part of a deal with Panama.
The first group of 238 Cuban migrants arrived Monday in the border city of Juarez on two flights from Panama, Mexico’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The agreement will allow Panama to send a total of 3,995 U.S.-bound Cubans migrants to Mexico, where they will be allowed to stay for up to 20 days for “humanitarian reasons” due to “extraordinary circumstances,” the ministry said.
The migrants have been stranded in Central America after several countries closed their borders and stopped them from traveling north.
Cuban immigration to the United States has spiked amid growing fears that U.S. immigration policies could be changing as relations between the two countries thaw.
Since the 1960s, U.S. law has allowed Cuban refugees who set foot in the United States to live and work in the country without facing the same hurdles immigrants from other countries encounter.
But making it to the United States isn’t easy.
Those who are found at sea are returned to Cuba. And an increasing number of countries across Latin America are closing their borders to stop migration.
The Cuban immigrants who arrive into the US without a visa should be shot on site. This should apply to all illegal immigrants.