The number of Cubans trying to enter the U.S. has skyrocketed

Not only has the number of legal and illegal migrants attempting to cross the U.S. southern border from Mexico increased dramatically in previous years: recently, an important detail has been added to this trend. Both ten and twenty years ago, the vast majority of these migrants were Mexican nationals; under the Trump administration, the focus has shifted to Central Americans-Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

In recent months, however, the Mexican-American border has seen a sudden surge of people from such countries as Colombia, Cuba, and Venezuela. It has increased to such an extent that sociologists in the United States say: the previous system of admission to the country cannot cope with this influx, and the White House urgently needs to change its immigration policy.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, at least 700,000 migrants from Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela and Cuba have been registered at the border since last October. This is a very significant demographic shift.

Of the confirmed number, about 20 percent are Cubans. Such numbers of migrants from the “Island of Liberty” have not been seen in nearly forty years.

“My wife and I’s future daughter is the most important thing for us. My most cherished dream was that nothing would happen to her, and that I could give her a gift: the opportunity to be born in a free land. In Cuba, that dream was unrealizable, and now she should be born in the land of opportunity,” the father of the family, an immigrant from Cuba who wished to remain incognito, told Reuters and made his way to the Mexican-U.S. border with his pregnant wife.

In May of this year, the U.S. administration resumed issuing visas to Cubans under a quota of about 20,000 a year. However, the number of natives of this Caribbean island trying to enter the U.S. has skyrocketed because of the growing economic crisis and the harsh crackdown on opposition in Cuba.

Cuban leaders themselves blame the crisis of the national economy on the U.S. government and its trade embargo.