Thread: More than 1,000 migrants storm border into Costa Rica, headed to U.S.

More than 1,000 migrants storm border into Costa Rica

• Agence France-Presse

on Apr 13, 2016 @ 1:55 PM

More than 1,000 migrants, most of them Cubans, thronged and then stormed across Panama's border into Costa Rica on Wednesday, officials said.

The incident risked reviving a recent crisis in which thousands of Cubans determined to make it to the United States became stranded in Costa Rica because their passage north through Central America was blocked.

Television images showed migrants clashing with officials trying to stop them in Costa Rica's border town of Paso Canoas. Several car windows were broken in the scuffles.

Costa Rican officials said some Africans and Asians were among those entering and they vowed to deport back to Panama any undocumented migrants.

They blamed the United States for "promoting" the flow of Cubans. People leaving the Communist-run nation are the only migrants who -- if they simply make it to US soil -- after just a medical clearance are granted temporary US residence and the right to work legally, and some health care.

Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez told a media conference that migrants were wrong to think they could push their way over the border.

"If they are trying to swamp Costa Rica by sending in avalanches of people, they are mistaken. With force, not even their little toes will enter," he said.

Amid many Cubans' concerns that they may soon lose the generous US migrant benefits, the US Coast Guard has seen a spike in Cubans arriving in the United States by land and sea since Washington and Havana announced they would begin normalizing relations in December 2014.

More than 43,000 Cubans entered the United States by sea and land during fiscal year 2015 -- which ended in September -- a figure not seen for decades.

- Reinforcements to Panama frontier -Costa Rica said it was reinforcing security on its southern border with Panama to prevent more crossings.

"The operation is under way" but would be carried out with "total respect" for human rights, Security Minister Gustavo Mata told a media conference.

"Today more than a thousand undocumented migrants violently and with force entered Costa Rica, which represents an affront to the Costa Rican people," the presidency said in a statement.

It stressed that the country was unable to cope with such an influx of migrants and that it had just cleared out 8,000 Cubans who had been blocked in the country when its northern neighbor Nicaragua closed its border to them five months ago.

Those stranded Cubans had been put on special flights skipping over Nicaragua, to either El Salvador or Mexico, with most of them paying their own way.

The incident deepened animosity between Nicaragua -- an ally to the Cuban government -- and Costa Rica, whose ties have been strained by border disputes.

- US policy denounced -The statement from Costa Rica's presidency denounced US policy dating back to the Cold War many describe as "wet foot, dry foot." Cubans picked up at sea in the shark-infested Florida Straits are repatriated but any who arrive on US shores get to stay.

It said the policy promotes such irregular migratory flows by providing "a perverse incitement" for Cubans to try to get to the United States no matter the obstacle.

The US approach, it said, "fosters conditions for human trafficking."

In the joint governmental media conference with other ministers, the head of Costa Rica's migration agency, Kattia Rodriguez said up to 1,200 migrants might have crossed on Wednesday.

"They are mainly Cuban people," she said, with a small number of migrants from Africa and Asia.

The incident presented a new challenge to Costa Rica, which on Tuesday had hosted a meeting of Latin American and US migration officials and urged them to come up with a coordinated response on handling Cuban and African migrants.

In the meeting, Costa Rica had stressed that it was not permitting the entry of US-bound Cubans, 2,000 of whom had arrived in Panama in recent weeks.
rmb-

http://www.globalpost.com/article/67...der-costa-rica

End the Cuban Adjustment Act NOW...no more wet foot / dry foot. And Odumba sent Costa Rica $1 million of OUR money, out of OUR pockets to bring these Cuban's here. Now we have MORE extortion in the human smuggling operation of these countries South of our border. What will it cost TAXPAYERS this time. Load them up on barges and send them back to Cuba!

COSTA RICA

Cuban migrants storm Costa Rica-Panama border demanding to pass

ZACH DYER 5 HOURS AGO


A group of migrants without permission to enter Costa Rica speak with a police officer at the Paso Canoas border checkpoint on April 13, 2016.
(Courtesy Public Security Ministry)

More than 1,000 mostly Cuban migrants blocked traffic and forcibly crossed the border into Costa Rica Wednesday morning, demanding that Costa Rica and Nicaragua let them pass through on their way to the United States, Security Minister Gustavo Mata said during a news conference.

Most of the migrants returned to Panama voluntarily, although Mata said police escorted some back.

President Luis Guillermo Solís, Security Minister Gustavo Mata, Foreign Minister Manual González and Immigration Administration Director Kattia Rodríguez met at Casa Presidencial for an emergency meeting on the topic Wednesday.

Costa Rican media outlet Colosal posted a video to Facebook from the scene at Paso Canoas showing a large crowd yelling and, at one point, surrounding a car with a cracked windshield.

Several police officers are present.

One man showed his bloodied arm to the camera, but it was not clear what caused the injury.

Others in the video accused police of beating them.

Mata said that an additional 150 police officers would be dispatched to reinforce the country’s southern border with Panama. The officers will stay as long as needed, Mata said. Officials from the Child Welfare Office, National Institute for Women and the Mixed Institute for Social Aid will also be at the border.

The border protest took place a day after regional leaders gathered in San José to address persistent problems on the immigration front, including the continued arrival of Cubans and migrants from Africa and Asia.

Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel González read an official statement Wednesday afternoon reaffirming that Costa Rica would not grant any more temporary transit visas to Cuban migrants without permission to enter the country.

González repeated the government’s position that the U.S. Cuban Adjustment Act, which allows Cubans who reach the U.S. to access federal benefit and apply for residency after one year, was a “perverse incentive” that encourages human smuggling and other organized crime.
González said a hot-potato approach to Cuban and other migrants was not a lasting solution to this latest wave of illegal immigration in Central America. Despite the fact that the meeting in San José Tuesday did not produce a solution, he said that Costa Rica would remain open to continued dialogue with its neighbors to find one.

González said Costa Rica would issue a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama as early as Wednesday expressing the government’s disproval with current U.S. policy on Cuban migrants. The foreign minister said the letter would ask Obama to take executive action to limit the so-called “wet foot, dry foot” policy. He said that Costa Rica’s ambassador to the U.S. would continue to meet with members of the U.S. Congress to explain Costa Rica’s concern with current policy.

The Panamanian newspaper La Estrella reported that there are some 2,000 Cuban migrants trying to reach the United States living in four shelters in Chiriquí, Panama. Costa Rica stopped receiving Cuban migrants in December 2015.

In March, President Solís declared the successful conclusion of Costa Rica’s humanitarian mission in which the country cared for more than 7,800 migrants and helped them on their way to the U.S.-Mexico border.

This is a developing story.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/new...estern-mexico/

I was in Costa Rica last fall. The police carry machetes. They are a peaceful nation no army. I watched from balcony in the evenings as their immigration control convoy drove by at dusk. They set up road blocks and hide in fields I was told by a local. They are strict on immigration. Even Americans have to leave the country after 3 months even that only works maybe once or twice then they come pick you up and put you on a plane. Just before I was there a couple of years ago a young boy of 10-12 was rapped and they found his headless body in some weeds beside the road. The locals had never seen this kind of crime before.They said it was the Columbian's that had been spotted in town at that time on their way to the USA. Many of them that cause the crime on their way to the USA coming through their country. My daughter-inlaw said they leave bodies all along the trails to the USA. Mexico has murdered their citizens and friends trying to come here from Costa Rica and they are not very friendly to Mexicans, I was at a local restaurant and a latino from California was volunteering at a Restaurant through her university. We listened as she was asked where she was from and she kept saying California. She said they kept saying she was Mexican. She couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. Costa Rica is strict on foreigners taking their jobs. A Mexican was trying to sell us a time share in a development in Costa Rica, He even offered us a free stay in Cancun Mexico if we went to a seminar. I asked why would I want to go to a country that everyone is trying to leave. He said it is beautiful. I replied it is here and we don't have to worry about getting killed. His response was that the government and the cartel have an understanding not to bother tourist. My husband said you mean they are paid off. The guy put his shoulder up near my husband and said they watch out for each other. My husband said yea that is a place I'd like to go where the cartel and the government work together. No thanks. My daughter-inlaw said he would be gone in a few days when they figure out he is a Mexican. My son is married to a Costa Rican and getting citizenship is not easy unless you are rich. But they are not very happy with the crime wave that has swept their peaceful country. They call it the death trail to the America. It is costing these small countries a fortune they don't have and man power for a mess created by Obama. These lives are all on Obama also innocent people murdered all along this route to the USA with no concern and promising them citizenship and a better life. How many deaths has he caused can not be counted encouraging people to come to our county illegally. Without regards to all the cost to these countries; along with the cost of bodies left on the trail to the USA. One Costa Rican lady commented on the you tube page. You give them your hand and they want your body. Kind of a neat way to phrase it.