More Cubans go through Mexico

IMMIGRATION
More Cubans go through Mexico
The flow of Cubans leaving the island has continued unabated since Fidel
Castro ''temporarily'' ceded power to his brother Raúl -- but the
majority of Cuban migrants now arrives at the Mexican border.
Posted on Thu, Aug. 02, 2007
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@MiamiHerald.com

In the year since Fidel Castro ''temporarily'' ceded power to his
younger brother Raúl, Cuban migrants have continued to leave the island
amid indications that departures may match or exceed the same period
last year. And most are coming by way of Mexico.

Already, the number of Cuban migrant arrivals this fiscal year, which
ends Sept. 30, exceeds the total for all of fiscal year 2006 -- with a
majority showing up at the Mexican border instead of the Florida
Straits. Overall figures that include interdictions are lagging behind
last fiscal year, though not by much.

Cuban migrants, many of them smuggled by fast boat from Cuba to Cancún,
Mexico, are arriving all along the border from San Diego, Calif., to
Brownsville, Texas. But most of those migrants are crossing through the
Texas cities of Brownsville, Laredo and McAllen, said Jennifer Connors,
a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman in Washington.

`MAKING A DIFFERENCE'

Homeland Security officials and Cuban affairs experts attributed the
change to intensified Coast Guard interdiction in the Florida Straits.

U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Luis Díaz and Zachary Mann, U.S. Customs and
Border Protection spokesman, said combined operations are having an impact.

''We are making a difference,'' said Diaz.

Mann said his agency's two new helicopters will undergo at least three
months of tests, which may include participation in interdiction
operations with the Coast Guard. The helicopters are in addition to
''numerous other assets'' including a recently deployed Dash-8 maritime
surveillance aircraft whose radar can track up to 99 ''targets''
simultaneously, Mann said.

Officials did not discount that at this pace the overall number of
Cubans leaving their homeland may equal or surpass the total for fiscal
year 2006. Cuban migrant interdictions have been rising steadily with
745 people stopped in May and June compared to 273 in March and April.

`NOT EXPLODING'

''The numbers are rising, but not exploding,'' said Connors. In other
words, she said, there are no signs of a mass exodus.

Customs and Border Protection last week said newly released figures
showed that more than 80 percent of Cuban migrants in fiscal year 2006
came through the Mexican border. But the percentage was based on
incomplete figures. Officials said Wednesday that the statistics
released last week reflected arrivals of Cuban migrants at ports of
entry -- but did not include arrivals along South Florida beaches.

When those arrivals are added, the percentage of Cubans entering through
the Mexican border for 2006 was 64.4 percent and currently 69.1 percent
for 2007.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/190062.html