Global Courant 2023-04-25 05:20:36
The US expects an increase in arrivals across its southern border with Mexico as COVID-19 restrictions expire.
The United States has sent its first deportation flight to Cuba since 2020, months after the island nation agreed — for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic — to accept flights carrying Cubans detained near the US-Mexico border.
“On April 24, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement resumed normal removal processing for Cuban nationals who have received final removal orders,” a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
The Cuban government confirmed the flight’s arrival, saying on Twitter that 40 Cubans had been intercepted in boats and 83 were detained at the US-Mexico border.
Reuters first reported late last year that Cuba agreed to give US authorities a new but limited tool to deter record numbers of Cuban border crossings.
After US President Joe Biden introduced more restrictive border security measures in January, the number of Cubans and other asylum seekers and migrants detained at the border plummeted.
However, the Biden administration is preparing for a possible increase in illegal crossings with COVID restrictions on the US-Mexico border lifted on May 11. The government will say more about its preparations this week, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters Thursday.
US and Cuban officials discussed migration issues earlier this month as the Biden administration braced for the end of COVID-era border restrictions that have barred Cubans from entering the United States from Mexico in recent months.
The U.S. embassy in Havana resumed full treatment of immigrant visas and consular services in January for the first time since 2017, in a bid to halt the record number of Cubans trying to enter the United States from Mexico.
“The United States continues to encourage Cubans to use legal processes,” the DHS spokesman said Monday.
The Biden administration in January began expelling Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans crossing the US-Mexico border under restrictions known as Title 42, while also opening new legal avenues for those groups.
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