Mexico & Cuba Relations: Influx of Cuban Immigrants Flock to the Mexican Border En Route to the U.S.

Waves of Cuban immigrants are reaching the United States via Mexico. This new exodus is the highest in a decade, reports say.

Financial Times reported that President Raúl Castro of Cuba had met Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto this past Friday in order to strengthen ties and repair past tensions between the two nations. However, there was a new political dillema that needed to be addressed and that involved exodus of Cubans making their way to the U.S. across Mexico's border.

The website also said that close to 6,500 Cuban immigrants had made their way to Mexico in order to enter the United States during the first half of the year. The numbers say that these figures have increased significantly as opposed to last year, according to the results of official statistics. The numbers have reportedly continued to steadily increase as more than 8,000 Cubans have entered Mexico so far this year.

Many of these Cuban immigrants have taken to sleeping on hard floors or in cots outside the Tapachula station while awaiting processing of their papers. Human rights groups have responded to the plight of Cuba's immigrants by opening up their doors to them.

Additionally, it was also reported that the national human rights commission, CNDH, had reported that over a thousand Cuban immigrants had arrived at the Tapachula station in just a week's time in October. This has caused many migration officials to be overwhelmed by the influx of Cuban immigrants, finding it difficult to attend to all of them.

The Cubans immigrants believe that political freedom and economic opportunity are just some of the much-needed improvements that Cuba needs in order to assure them of a better life, the report says. 

Vice News reported that Mexico is the final barrier that the Cubans must take to reach the United States, and should the immigrants be able to receive visas, it has become one of the simplest borders to cross.

There is an existing agreement signed in 2008 where Mexico had made a commitment to  have Cubans deported should they enter the country illegally. Cuba had also made the agreement to accept citizens who had left Cuba two year prior. The United States had reportedly pressured Mexico to sign the agreement because of the financial burden caused by the Cuban immigrants crossing the border. 

"Everyone who is able to leave Cuba is leaving," said one 42-year-old Alexy Ribero Martínez in a report with the website. "Those who can't leave now will be stuck there."