Cuban Migration to the United States Surges

Over 400,000 Cubans are believed to have come to the United States over the past few years, yet in their flight from communism some refugees may be bringing problems of their own.

In recent years, Cuban nationals have begun fleeing their island nation and immigrating to the United States at an astonishing rate.

Immigration from Cuba is nothing new, and the numbers have ebbed and flowed over the decades. Between 1965 and 1973, nearly 300,000 Cubans came to the United States in a series of transports known as the Freedom Flights. In 1980, nearly 125,000 Cubans immigrated during the Mariel Boatlift, and 35,000 more fled the island in the 1994 Rafter Crisis.

Yet none of this compares to recent figures. Last year, Politico reported that nearly 425,000 Cuban nationals had encounters with U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at points of entry to the United States over the course of fiscal years 2022-2023. And while Cuban emigres in the past tended to arrive by sea, most of these newer immigrants are showing up at the porous southern border with Mexico.

Even these numbers do not paint the full picture of how dire the situation on the island has become. According to a recent report by Cuba’s national statistics office, over a million Cubans have left the country in recent years, amounting to over 10% of the entire population. Some outside scholars estimate that the actual decrease in population may be even higher, perhaps as much as 18%.

Cuba’s economic situation has been bleak for decades. However, the recent wave of emigration is due not just to the problems on the island, but also to the policies of the Biden administration, writes scholar and commentator Mike Gonzalez. Gonzalez considers America’s lax border policies to be a “powerful pull factor” for Cubans.

In fact, immigration from Cuba is only one part of a much larger flood of immigration into the United States from Latin America. The total number of migrant encounters with Customs and Border Protection has skyrocketed since 2021. In December 2023, Border Patrol reported a new monthly high of nearly 250,000 border encounters. Since the Biden administration stopped using Title 42 to expel migrants from the country in 2023, these encounters often end with release into the interior.

A relevant question is what impact this will have on American politics. Historically, Cuban Americans have been a reliably Republican voting bloc, and the same holds true today: according to a 2020 Pew Research survey, approximately 58% of Cubans lean Republican. However, the vast majority of non-Cuban Hispanic Americans – 65% - lean Democrat. If these new Cuban immigrants remain in the United States and eventually become voting citizens, it is far from certain whether they will vote more in line with prior generations of Cubans, or with other Hispanic voters.

Some older, more established Cuban Americans have expressed suspicion over the newer immigrants. Gonzalez cites Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who recently said, ““We have no idea who some of these people are. We have no idea if they have criminal records.” Rubio drew a distinction between immigrants who “came from Cuba 45 years ago, (who’ve) worked here their entire lives,” and “somebody who just got here from Cuba three months ago, who’s 29 years old, doesn’t work, and is given $1,500 a month in benefits by our government because they’re a refugee.”

Even before becoming voting citizens, large waves of immigrants can have a powerful impact on their host country.

In the abovementioned 1980 Mariel Boatlift, the Cuban government took the opportunity to rid the island of undesirables. Along with ordinary immigrants hoping to build a better life for themselves, the “Marielitos” contained thousands of criminals and mentally ill people. The cost imposed on the United States was immense; in 1985, authorities estimated that there were as many as 400 Marielito prisoners in Dade County jails. The effects of the boatlift continue to this day, and serve as a sobering reminder to those who would ignore the complicated questions involved with immigration.