Easy and quicker to enter from Mexico.
About a dozen Cuban migrants who entered the United States recently via the Mexican border have been sleeping outdoors in Doral, Fla., because a refugee assistance agency cannot move them or provide them with aid right away.
The Cubans said in interviews Thursday that the agency — Church World Service — offered to take them to a homeless shelter but with no assurance that they could find beds. The migrants also said that they were told to come back in September for individual appointments and that their chances of relocation and aid would be better then.
“We came straight here and they told us that our appointment could not take place until Sept. 12,” said Edel Nocedo Zulueta, 44, who arrived in Miami a week ago after illegally crossing the border at Laredo, Texas. “They said that when the appointment takes place they will be able to tell us when they can resettle us, relocate us to another state.”[…]
More than 18,000 Cuban migrants have arrived in the United States since Oct. 1 –– about the number for all of the previous fiscal year. While the majority of Cuban migrants arrive through the Mexican border, most wind up in South Florida.
Church World Service officials said these Cuban migrants cannot be assisted immediately because of the large number of Cubans showing up without visas in the United States, both on the beaches and at the Mexican border.
Oscar Rivera, director of the Church World Service office in Doral, said his office does not have resources to immediately provide services to Cuban migrants who knock on their door, especially since their assistance involves putting up people in hotels and buying plane tickets for relocation to other states.