The Onslaught of Undocumented Cubans Arriving in the US Crashes Social Services

The Onslaught of Undocumented Cubans Arriving in the US Crashes Social
Services / Diario de Cuba
Posted on July 10, 2015

DiariodeCuba.org, Miami, 10 July 2015 – The increase in the number of
Cubans who ae arriving undocumented in the United States due to the
announcement of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba
is so great that Florida's social services cannot cope; they have
crashed and have a waiting list of almost two months, reports the
Spanish newspaper El Mundo.

This situation slows the settlement of these people in other states, the
receipt of work permits and emergency monetary help. Those recently
arrived fear that the renewal of diplomatic relations at the
ambassadorial level will put an end to exceptional immigration laws
favoring Cubans.

According to figures from Immigration Services, since the October 1st
beginning of the fiscal year, almost 19,000 Cubans have entered the
country either by sea or across the Mexican border, a figure equivalent
to the total arrivals of the previous year. Two thirds of those arrived
since the announcement of the thaw.

The newspaper relates the case of the Cuban Antonio Mora, 27 years of
age, who arrived in Miami after entering the country at Laredo, Texas, a
border crossing with Nuevo Laredo in Mexico. He was interviewed, and he
presented his case as a Cuban refugee and was admitted in to the country
easily.

He immediately moved to south Florida, but he has no relatives there,
and he has been homeless. The young man survives in the open in a
shopping center parking lot in the city of Doral in the Miami
metropolitan area together with three other fellow countrymen.

"We came without money or family. In Cuba it is said that the United
States' government gives asylum to Cubans. Meanwhile, we have to be
outdoors," he emphasizes with a certain despair.

Catholic social service organizations say that they are overwhelmed.
"Many are coming. We operate on state programs and private
contributions," say sources consulted by the media.

"But with the crisis, contributions have fallen and funds are exhausted.
We don't have the capacity to process so many people," explains Amaldo
Vicente, one of the volunteers from Catholic Charities, the most
important Florida home for refugees, without greater detail because he
is not authorized to comment on the issue.

Translated by MLK

Source: The Onslaught of Undocumented Cubans Arriving in the US Crashes
Social Services / Diario de Cuba | Translating Cuba -
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