Mexico began to implement a special family reunification program that allows Cubans who have relatives working in the country to request “exclusive” appointments at the consulate in Havana for expedited visa processing.
The special program arises as a result of the great demand for visas for family reunification, explained the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement.
It is estimated that it can benefit the relatives of migrants who have remained in the country on their way to the United States, but in particular the hundreds of Cuban doctors sent to support Mexican public health (more than 600).
Immigrants can already make the request, from February 17, to obtain an appointment from April to June of this year for the family reunification visa by registering as users on the official website.
Appointments are free, personal and non-transferable, it was specified, and will be assigned according to the order in which they have been requested until exhausted.
The Consulate of Mexico in Havana has already released information on the opening of the aforementioned appointments on its social networks.
The deteriorating economic situation and the difficult political landscape in Cuba have prompted an exodus from the island, with many crossing into Mexico in search of reaching the United States.
Blackouts, shortages, inflation, long lines to refuel and dollarization marked part of 2021 and 2022 in Cuba, while citizen tension ignited the first demonstrations in decades with thousands of people demanding from the cessation of power outages to some reform requests.
Of the 40,000 Cubans who entered Mexico in 2020, a total of 5,000 were returned to the island and another 20,000 received some type of residency or humanitarian visa in Mexico.
It is not clear what happened to the rest, although many are estimated to make it to the United States.
Maria de Jesus Ruiz Carrasco, a Cuban migrant hoping to seek asylum in the United States, receives medical care at a clinic in Matamoros, Mexico. Eric Gay / AP
More than 600 Cuban doctors
Although it is estimated that the new policy can especially benefit
the families of Cuban doctors
who began to arrive in the country last year to reinforce care in the Mexican public health system.
There are 610 Cuban doctors deployed in 83 hospitals in 12 states of the country, according to data released this week by the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS).
These professionals belong to specialties in high demand (among internists, pediatricians, surgeons, cardiologists, neurologists, oncologists and more) and work in hospitals with difficult coverage, said General Director of Social Security, Zoé Robledo.
The new visa program was announced precisely days after the visit of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel to Mexico, in which he received the Mexican order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest decoration that can be given to a Chief of Foreign State in a sample of the close alliance that both governments maintain and for Cuba's support for Mexico during the pandemic (which sparked criticism from opponents).
During this bilateral meeting, Robledo stated that Mexico would need 100 additional Cuban doctors to reinforce care in hospitals.
In Mexico there are 107 specialists for every 100,000 people when the international recommendation is 230, more than double, the government maintains.
The close relationship between Cuba and Mexico
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has had a close relationship with Cuban leaders, importing a variety of products and services into the country from the island, from Cuban-made coronavirus vaccines to raw stone for the construction of the Mayan Train.
López Obrador and Díaz-Canel have also seen each other five times since they were in power.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Miguel Díaz-Canel speak after signing bilateral agreements at the Palace of the Revolution, in May 2022, in Havana, Cuba.
Yamil Lage/AP
On the contrary, the US authorities have difficulties returning Cubans to the island due to tense relations with the Cuban government.
The US still maintains the historic economic embargo it imposed on the island 60 years ago.
Mexico recently ruled out the possibility of friction with the United States in light of the demands made by López Obrador to end the 1962 embargo. This was expressed by Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard last weekend when he assured that "Mexico and the United States are allies, but we do not have identical interests.”
Ebrard told the press, after firing Díaz-Canel, that "it is not an effort to annoy the United States or enter into friction," but what is sought is that "we leave the past behind, lift this type of blockade and try to to create a fraternal coexistence of the Americas”.
A new policy for Cubans in the US
The Joe Biden government tightened the return of people who cross its southern border illegally, but it also opened options so that some nationalities could apply for temporary visas.
With the new policy implemented in early January, 30,000 migrants are accepted each month from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti through a “parole” procedure initiated online by a sponsor in the United States – a friend or family member of the migrant.
They will be authorized to work for a term of two years, while they wait to complete legal permanent residence.
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However, those who risk reaching the borders without permission –whether by land or by sea- face expedited deportation and no entry into US territory for five years.
Mexico also began to accept these citizens.
The program is intended to act as a deterrent to migration along the risky route through Mexico -- plagued by human traffickers -- that also helps to order the flow north, although this would be achieved to the extent that the state of the economy on the island better.
So far, the policy has led to a 97% drop in illegal border crossings by migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, according to authorities.
Although this regulation also works for Nicaraguans, Haitians and Venezuelans, in Cuba it was quickly accepted by its citizens, causing a search for sponsors, unexpected trips and queues to obtain documents.
Until the implementation of the new regulation on January 5, Cubans who arrived at the northern border of Mexico obtained permits that allowed them to enter US territory and their situation usually ended a year later with access to benefits as refugees under the protection of the Cuban Adjustment Act, a regulation from the 1960s with a strong political connotation.
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According to statistics from the United States border authorities, in the 2021-2022 fiscal year – which began in October 2021 and ended in September 2022 – officers stopped
a record number of 224,000 encounters with Cuban migrants at the border with Mexico
.
A person could try to pass several times, but in reality few Cubans were turned away.
In October 2022 there were 29,878;
in November, 35,881 and in December, 44,064.
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This migratory intensity never registered until now, occurs in the context of a serious economic crisis on the island, caused by a dramatic mix between the economic paralysis of the pandemic —and its slow recovery—, the inefficiencies of a local financial reform and the tightening of United States sanctions that, according to the authorities, seek to suffocate the island to pressure the government to change the political model.
With information from The Associated Press.