TheCuban migration towards the United States continues to give alarming figures in the statistics of people leaving the Island, in this case the number of unaccompanied minors who crossed the southern US border is significant, set at 800 during the last semester.
TheCustoms and Border Protection (CBP) statistics show that December was the month in which the most unaccompanied minors entered during the first six months of fiscal year 2024 (FY2024), which began last October, with the arrival of 168.
In total there are some 791 minors not accompanied by their parents during the period, a number that is lower than the same stage in 2023, when about 1,183 were recorded, but higher than in 2022 when about 231 were detected.
However, the number should increase when the migratory flows are recorded in the coming months, which are a thermometer of the migratory wave that Cuba is experiencing and in which many parents consider emigration for their children as the only alternative to freedom.
In 2023, the immigration lawyer in MiamiAngel Leal commented toCyberCuba that the processing of these cases is transferred from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS/CBP) and to the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which establishes temporary immigration custody of the minor through its Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).
He also explained that minors arriving at border points without accompaniment are exempt from expedited deportation.
“Immigration custody of the minor cannot exceed 21 days, with the idea of retaining and processing them in the least restrictive and safest place possible,” the lawyer said.
Under the federal protection program for stranded immigrant children, US authorities can send minors to Catholic Charities shelters.
But in the case of Cubans, minors mostly make the journey with family and friends, and stay for a short time in shelters before going to live with a guardian or a family member who was already in the United States.
In a much larger trend,Until the end of March 2024, the number of Cubans authorized to travel to the United States "in a safe, orderly and legal manner" thanks to the humanitarian parole program approved by the Biden administration, reached the figure of 86 thousand, according to recent data offered by CBP.
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