Thousands Of Cuban Immigrants Traveling From Panama To El Paso

By Mónica Ortiz Uribe
May 17, 2016
Mónica Ortiz Uribe
A group of recent Cuban immigrants drove from Miami to El Paso to pick up new Cuban arrivals flying in from Panama. They wait near the international bridge that connects El Paso to neighboring Ciudad Juárez.

Thousands of Cuban migrants stranded in Panama are boarding planes throughout the month headed to the U.S.-Mexico border. They're crossing into the United States via El Paso, where financial and housing resources are strained.

Almost every day since May 9, two planeloads carrying 150 immigrants each have landed at the airport in the Mexican border city of Juárez. From there they're bused by Mexican authorities to the international bridge where they're processed and released by U.S. customs officers.

Ernesto Rodriguez is a Cuban migrant who arrived in the United States a year ago. Wearing a baseball hat embroidered with the American flag and blasting Reggeatón music, he sat at the wheel of an 18-passenger van on Monday near the foot of the bridge in downtown El Paso. He banded together with a group of friends from Miami to pick up some of the new arrivals.

"In Cuba, I worked as a taxi driver," Rodriguez said. "But I couldn't earn enough to live well."

He left for Miami, where he's now a driver for Uber. Rodriguez was able to stay thanks to the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act which gives Cubans a fast track to U.S. residency. Now that the two countries are reestablishing diplomatic relations, Cubans are coming over in record numbers, fearing their window of opportunity will soon close.

In 2015 U.S Customs and Border Protection allowed 43,154 Cubans into the country, nearly double the amount admitted the previous year.

"There's a big need for volunteers," said Elizabeth O'Hara, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of El Paso. 

The Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services is part of a community network in El Paso that assists migrants.

"We're doing everything that we can to make sure that people have what they need," O'Hara said. "But we are getting more people every single day."

The Diocese is asking people to donate money online for bus tickets so Cubans arriving in El Paso can reach their final destination. Many are reuniting with family members across the country.

Mexico agreed to transport close to 4,000 Cuban migrants from Panama this month after several Central American countries closed off their borders. Each migrant must pay $800 for the flight.