Cuban immigrants take new route to U.S.

Thousands make longer, easier trip through Mexico

By Marc Lacey
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

October 16, 2007

CORTES, Cuba – Cubans are immigrating to the United States in the greatest numbers in more than a decade, and for most of them the new way to get north is first to head west – to Mexico – in a convoluted route that avoids the U.S. Coast Guard.







The New York Times
People arrive and depart from the harbor at Isla Mujeres, Mexico, a key transit point for Cubans immigrating to the United States. After arriving, many Cubans fly to Matamoros, a border town just across from Brownsville, Texas.
U.S. officials say the immigration, which has grown into a multimillion-dollar-a-year smuggling enterprise, has risen sharply because many Cubans have lost hope that Raul Castro, who took over as president from his brother Fidel Castro in 2006, will make changes that will improve their lives. Cuban authorities contend that the immigration is more economic than political and is fueled by Washington's policy of rewarding Cubans who enter the United States illegally.
In fact, unlike Mexicans, Central Americans and others heading to the southwestern border of the United States, Cubans do not have to sneak across. They just walk up to U.S. authorities at the border, benefiting from lax Mexican enforcement and relying on Washington's “wet foot, dry footâ€