The “Legal” Traffic of Cubans to the United States

The "Legal" Traffic of Cubans to the United States / Juan Juan Almeida
Posted on May 8, 2014

Survival, reproduction, adaptation; there are many circumstances that
force us to emigrate. It's not a new phenomenon, but rather a sort of
endless cycle. The journey of sailor of sails to the Cape of Good Hope
confident that every "so long," in whatever form, will be his triumphant
return.

We Cubans emigrate for political or economic interests, and/or for
family reunification; but illegal migration from Cuba to the United
States remains a growth industry, which although many know it, very few
dare to comment, because they feel the pressure, or the prison, of their
own complicity.

Dark,sounding hollow and smelling of cheese; but who doesn't have a good
friend, acquaintance or family member on the island who wants to emigrate.

It's clear that there are migratory reforms between Washington and
Havana. It's also clear that the number of Cuban rafters has declined,
and Cubans with a price who manage criminal organizations like Los
Zetas, through Mexican territory toward the United States.

In fact today , there are only two extremes; those without resources,
those who manage to float the dream with bow to la yuma (the US); and
those on the other end of the food chain, who, with effort and ingenuity
make it out on the news, get attention, and to wink at the so-called
Talent Hunters.

The reality is that after the new Immigration Law passed, 11 October
2012, the proliferation of other less risky and more profitable ways is
appreciable.

The level of desire remains, there are more who want to emigrate. Of
course, popular discontent is growing, repressing is sharper than ever,
the lack of work opportunities is a basic reality, the people who have
been displaced from their jobs through the measures publicized by
General Raul Castro, and those who before this process of massive
expulsion lacked a job. All this has made emigration an important and
significant source of income for the Cuban State, and an escape valve
for the island's government.

Changing the flight path, monopolizing the business and reducing the
risk, raised the price of emigration and hiding the illegal traces.

"Hard bread, sharp tooth." This lucrative action contributes more
economic force than does foreign investment, because it can count on
potential customers with cash. It's not just the persecuted who
emigrate, it's also the persecutor.

Of the approximately 10 thousand dollars a Cuban pays to leave Cuban
territory for the United States, some 3 thousand end up in the
government's coffers.

It's traffic, yes; but legal. Now buying a visa, although this comes
like manna from heaven, awarded through non-legal channels, doesn't
constitute a crime. Then, a Cuban citizen arriving in the United States
through a third country, is no longer Cuba's responsibility.

On that point, the play is clever; but despite all the nooks and
crannies it's clear that in the largest of the Antilles there is no
identification between legal international instruments regarding human
trafficking, and existing criminal laws.

5 May 2014

Source: "The "Legal" Traffic of Cubans to the United States / Juan Juan
Almeida | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-legal-traffic-of-cubans-to-the-united-states-juan-juan-almeida/