The Madrid-based outlet Diario de Cuba reported on Tuesday that, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics, 15,645 Cubans arrived in the United States in July — an average of 504 per day.
Cuba is facing a grave economic and humanitarian crisis that is a direct result of more than six decades of communist mismanagement under the authoritarian Castro regime. The situation has led to severe shortages of food, medicine, and basic supplies, as well as the collapse of its economy, which has forced nearly 90 percent of Cubans to endure conditions of extreme poverty.
The communist regime’s policies have led to the near-complete collapse of the nation’s infrastructure, forcing Cubans to face near-endless power blackouts that can last more than 12 hours at a time. Some areas reportedly only receive 30 minutes of running water every two months. This even includes the capital city of Havana, which serves as the communist regime’s seat of power.
The inhumane living conditions that the Castro regime continues to submit its citizens to have resulted in the worst migrant crisis in Cuba’s history and the ongoing decline of its population.
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Diario de Cuba, citing CBP statistics, stated that 196,567 Cubans arrived in the United States during the 2024 fiscal year, so far. The outlet pointed out that, while the statistics from June and July show a lower registered number of arrivals than May’s 18,984, more than 235,000 Cubans are projected to arrive by the end of the 2024 fiscal year on September 30 if the average is maintained. That number would make the 2024 fiscal year record-breaking, surpassing the 2022 fiscal year’s 224,607 arrivals and 2023’s 200,287 records.
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Since December 2021, American officials have documented the arrival of 608,757 Cubans. Independent demographic experts have estimated that Cuba lost 18 percent of its population between 2022 and 2023 as a result of the migrant crisis, leaving the country’s remaining population at about 8.62 million if also including those who fled to Latin America, Asia, or Europe.
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Diario de Cuba reported that “a stampede” of Cubans “that has not stopped” began in November 2021, when Nicaragua’s communist dictator, Daniel Ortega, eliminated entry visa requirements for Cuban nationals. That change allowed Cubans to travel to Managua by air, traverse Central America until reaching Mexico, and head to the U.S. southern border. Ortega maintains an active policy of “weaponizing” migrants against the United States to force the U.S. government into talks toward potential sanctions reliefs for his communist regime.
While the Ortega regime allows Cubans to enter Nicaragua without a visa, it actively prevents known dissidents of the Castro regime from landing in its territory at the implicit request of the Castro regime. In June, Cuban opposition activist Bárbaro de Cespedes said he was blocked from boarding a plane to Managua, effectively stranding him in Cuba.
The continued arrival of Cubans reportedly does not include only dissidents and anti-communist exiles. A growing list of Castro regime officials have been identified entering the United States, taking advantage of President Joe Biden’s flexible immigration policies.
In August, Manuel Menéndez Castellanos, a former member of the Cuban Communist Party and former henchman directly at the service of the late murderous dictator Fidel Castro, arrived in the United States.
The communist official, despite his decades-long public track record of service to the Communist Party, was able to obtain some form of visa and now resides in Florida. Unnamed relatives told reporters with the Miami-based Martí Noticias that Menéndez benefitted from a program from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) known as “Cuban Family Reunification Parole” (CFRP), which allows American citizens and permanent residents to request entry to the country for their relatives in Cuba. The program’s website states that its beneficiaries must pass background checks in addition to meeting other eligibility criteria.
On Tuesday, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) issued a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken in which she called for Menéndez Castellanos’s visa to be revoked and for the communist official’s immediate expulsion from the United States.
“It is unthinkable that someone who spent his life and career subjugating the Cuban people in the name of communism would be allowed to benefit from the fruits of American freedom and capitalism. Secretary Blinken must revoke his visa immediately,” Salazar’s statement read.
On Tuesday, Cuban immigration attorney Willy Allen demanded Cuban-American lawmakers request a federal investigation to determine how the communist official was able to obtain his visa and enter the United States.
“I would like, number one, for the congressmen to find out — because it has to be at the federal level — [and] for the senators to find out what happened here. What happened in that [immigration] interview?” Allen said in remarks given to America Tevé.
Before Menéndez Castellanos, other Castro regime officials entered the United States through other policies of the Biden administration, such as the CBP One smartphone application and the “Humanitarian Parole” program — presently suspended after allegations of widespread fraud were reportedly found in its records.
In June, Castro regime Judge Melody González Pedraza requested U.S. asylum after arriving in Tampa, Florida, as a beneficiary of the “Humanitarian Parole” program. The judge’s victims have accused her of having issued excessive sentences to peaceful dissidents, dooming them to several years in prison following skewed and unfair trials.
In May, Arelys Casañola Quintana, a former president of the Municipal Assembly of People’s Power on the Isla de la Juventud, entered the United States and is now reportedly believed to reside in Kentucky. That same month, Manuel Alejandro Marrero Medina, son of Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz, was reportedly accepted as a beneficiary of the “Humanitarian Parole” program but was ultimately denied the required flight permit to enter the United States.
While the Cuban prime minister’s son was unable to enter the United States, two of his nieces now reside in Florida. One was reportedly accepted as a beneficiary of the parole program in 2023, and the other entered the U.S. through the southern border in 2022.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.