RECORD NUMBER OF CUBANS ARRIVE IN U.S.

Cuban migrants are arriving in the United States in the highest numbers seen in four decades, with about 150,000 expected to arrive this year, according to senior U.S. officials, as the economic and political situation on the island grows more desperate.

For decades, Cubans trying to flee repression, food insecurity and economic devastation boarded rickety boats, risking their lives to get to U.S. shores.

Now they are coming in record numbers, but this time on foot, their flight aided by Nicaragua, which dropped visa requirements late last year for Cubans, giving them a toehold in Central America to journey overland through Mexico to the United States. U.S. officials have accused Nicaragua’s authoritarian president, Daniel Ortega, of enacting the policy to pressure the United States to drop sanctions on his country.

The surge in Cubans trying to cross the southern border represents just a portion of migrants who have at times overwhelmed border officials as unauthorized crossings continue to rise under the Biden administration. March set a record for the number of people caught crossing illegally in a single month in two decades: 221,303.

Since October — the start of the federal government’s 2022 fiscal year — nearly 79,000 Cubans have arrived at the United States’ southern border, more than in the previous two years combined, according to Customs and Border Protection figures. In March, more than 32,000 Cubans arrived at the border, most of them flying first to Nicaragua then traveling overland to the United States, according to a senior State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of ongoing dialogue with the Cuban government.

The official said visa-free travel to Nicaragua was encouraging migrants to spend their life savings to pay smugglers for the journey, and added that some were falling prey to trafficking by criminal groups.

The numbers are the highest since the Mariel boatlift in 1980, when 125,000 Cubans migrated to the United States after the island nation opened its seaports to American vessels to evacuate anyone who wanted to leave.

CHRIS O’MEARA AP A mother of two from Cuba sits with her son in the kitchen of their home in Tampa, Fla. Officials say more immigrants from Cuba are coming to the U.S. by making their way to Mexico and crossing the border illegally.