Cubans throng U.S. via Mexico

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By Tom Ramstack

Organized and increasingly violent criminals are helping Cuban emigrants make their way into the United States through Mexico, prompting Havana and Mexico City to open negotiations on a treaty to try to control the human trafficking.

Those negotiations were given fresh impetus by an incident last month in which armed men intercepted a Mexican immigration service bus carrying 33 captured illegal Cuban immigrants in southern Mexico and made off with the Cubans.

Within days, 18 of the Cubans turned up at a U.S. Border Patrol station at Hidalgo, Texas, to apply for residency in the U.S.

Illegal immigration to the U.S. from Cuba has reached its highest level since a mass exodus of 35,000 Cubans in 1994. The land route to the U.S. through Mexico appears to be gaining popularity in the face of aggressive Coast Guard efforts to stop illegal immigration by sea.

"In the past years, we have observed increased smuggling and trafficking of undocumented Cubans transiting via Mexico into the United States," said Ricardo Alday, a spokesman at the Mexican Embassy in Washington.

A total of 11,526 Cubans were intercepted trying to enter the United States through Mexico in fiscal 2007, almost twice as many as in fiscal 2005, according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). By June 30, agents intercepted 8,114 Cubans by land in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.

Last year, 2,861 Cubans were intercepted crossing the Florida Strait, according to U.S. Coast Guard figures. Another 4,825 who crossed by boat reached land and applied for residency under the federal government's "wet foot, dry foot" policy, under which Cubans intercepted at sea can be returned to the island's communist dictatorship. If they make it to land, they can apply for legal residency.

"They are using [the land bridge through Mexico] to a greater degree than the coastal bridge," said CBP spokesman Zachary Mann.

The Mexico-Cuba treaty to crack down on the trafficking could be signed as early as this fall, according to Mexican press reports, but details of the agreement are being held closely.

"Since the discussions are still in progress, I cannot share the contents of the negotiation," Mr. Alday said. "Due to the nature of the challenge involved, we seek to conclude it as soon as possible."