It is a dangerous 100-mile trip in often rickety boats — unknown thousands having perished over the years — but more Cubans are taking the risk amid deepening and compounding political and economic crises at home.
Recently arrived migrants wait in a garage area of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection - Marathon Border Patrol Station, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023, in Marathon, Fla. More than 500 Cuban immigrants have come ashore in the Florida Keys since the weekend, the latest in a large and increasing number who are fleeing the communist island. MARATHON, Fla.
Dry Tortugas National Park, a group of seven islands 70 miles west of Key West, remained closed to visitors Wednesday as the U.S. evacuated migrants who came ashore there earlier in the week. Normally, about 255 tourists a day arrive by boat and seaplane to tour the islands and Fort Jefferson, which was built 160 years ago. Officials did not know when it would reopen.
Cubans are willing to take the risk because those who make it to U.S. soil almost always get to stay, even if their legal status is murky. They also arrive by land, flying to Nicaragua, then traveling north through Honduras and Guatemala into Mexico. In the 2021-22 fiscal year, 220,000 Cubans were stopped at the U.S.-Mexican border, almost six times as many as the previous year.
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Cuban migrants flow into Florida Keys, overwhelm officialsMore than 500 Cuban immigrants have come ashore in the Florida Keys since the weekend, the latest in a large and increasing number who are fleeing the communist island.
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An influx of 300 migrants forces closure of a national park in the Florida KeysThe U.S. National Park Service estimated that some 300 migrants arrived in the Dry Tortugas National Park over the past couple days. The park is about 100 miles north of Havana, the Cuban capital.
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