141 Cubans ended in the port of Cabañas the most dangerous journey of their lives. They started scattered in groups of ten or twenty people, moving on their own in the waters of the Straits of Florida, until the Coast Guard of the United States rescued and sent them to Cuba.
The Seventh Division of this military body, which guards the maritime boundary south of North America, detected an unusual rise in the number of Cubans intercepted on their boats in the last two weeks of 2014.
481 Cuban migrants were found at sea or came ashore in the United States last December, a number that exceeds the 222 persons discovered in the last thirty-one days in 2013.
Statistical comparison does not alarm the Coast Guard, but the time period in which it occurred. Only 132 went into sea in the seventeenth day prior to the announcement of the restoration of relations between Havana and Washington. The trend continued with the New Year. The US Coast Guard has rescued 96 people before January 5.
A spokesman for the institution blamed for this increase to rumors about the repeal of the Cuban Adjustment Act. Lieutenant Commander Gabe Somma told AP that there are “no changes in the immigration law. That rumor only endangers people, “he said.
“Recent announcements of administration (Obama) regarding Cuba does not affect migration policies, including dry foot / wet foot or Cuban Adjustment Act, which only Congress can change,” said Rear Admiral Jake Korn, commander of the Seventh district.
To repeal any legislation, most members of the House of Representatives and United States Senate must approve the initiative.
The White House did not disclose migratory changes in its package of new measures towards Cuba. But the American jurist Robert Muse said that Obama does have power to alter the existing arrangements. This based in Washington and specializes in Cuban affairs lawyer, wrote in the journal Americas Quarterly that the President of the United States may direct the Attorney General to cease delivery of permanent residence to Cubans entering the country without visa.
Among October the first 2013 and September 30, 2014, the Coast Guard vessels found over 3,940 Cubans at sea. Illegal immigrants from the Island also try their luck across the border with Mexico or the sea passage that separates Puerto Rico from the Dominican Republic.
