Cuba, Mexico Look To Block The Texas Entrance To The U.S.
For Cubans fleeing their country, the main entrance into the United States shifted to Texas a couple years ago, after traveling through Mexico became a safer bet than floating to the guarded Florida coast. (The U.S. policy on Cubans allows undocumented immigrants to stay once they reach dry land.)
We first wrote about the trend in "Destination Texas," and the Cubans we spoke with spent some time in Mexican prisons, but after paying a fine, they were free to travel north. Statistics show that few Cubans are deported from Mexico.
That could change if Mexican and Cuban authorities enforce a new agreement for better cooperation to stop illegal Cubans in Mexico.
"Mexico has done that because they are a hypocrite in their rules," Jorge Ferragut tells Hair Balls. Ferragut came to Houston from Cuba in the 1980s, and he later started Casa Cuba, an organization that helps other Cubans arriving in Texas.
"The government of Mexico is supposed to be our brother," he says.
The details of the Cuban agreement were not released, but according to the Associated Press, the Mexican government is frustrated with the violence between Mexican and Cuban smugglers competing for business.
"They defend their people here in the United States who are doing the same thing," Ferragut says. "In the case of human rights, they don't have anymore standards."
-- Paul Knight
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