A small group of Cuban migrants crossed into the United States on Sunday (January 17) after a month’s long journey through Central America and Mexico finally came to an end.
The migrants arrived to the border city of Reynosa in northeastern Mexico near the border with Hidalgo, Texas.
One of the migrants, Byron Rojas Arevalo, who arrived to Reynosa by plane, said a long and harrowing journey, which started in Ecuador, was finally coming to an end.
“This trip has been really tough, but, thank God, we are here. It has been hard. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. We left Ecuador, went through Colombia – Colombia is a dangerous country. We went through Panama. We stayed for a long time in Costa Rica; we spent two months there until they reached the agreements. Now, Mexico was faster, but it was tough, we slept on the ground, sometimes we were left hungry,” Rojas said.
The group’s journey is part of a pilot programme agreed on last month to start allowing migrants to move toward the United States from Costa Rica, where they had been stuck since mid-November after Nicaragua shut its borders.
Those crossing the border on Sunday were part of just 180 chosen out of an estimated 8,000 stranded in Central America.
The group flew to El Salvador on Tuesday, from where they boarded buses and arrived in Mexico on Wednesday before continuing their journey north.
Another migrant, Pedro Noe de la Rosa, said he was praying for the Cubans left behind.
“It is what I ask God for, more than anything (for the Cuban migrants who remain stranded), because I was there stranded with them. And I ask God, every day, to help them, to give them a chance, for there to be flexibility in the measures so they can cross the border and fulfil the dreams they left Cuba with and achieve their goal,” he said.
Oswaldo Miguel Meza said he plans on finding a job once he reaches U.S. soil.
“Well, the plan is to work and help the country to which I am going, like a useful citizen and worker. Work. I don’t have any other plans but to work,” Meza said.
The flow of migrants from Cuba has surged as the process of a détente between Washington and Havana stirs fears that preferential U.S. asylum rights for Cubans may end soon.
Central American governments are expected to meet on Thursday (January 21) in Guatemala to evaluate the first trip of Cubans and see if the transit programme should continue, Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez said on Wednesday.
Waving good-bye to Mexico and the long journey behind them, the small group of migrants crossed the border into the U.S. with little fanfare and nothing more than a big hug. (Reuters)