A fast-rising influx of
Cubans are crossing the border into Texas by the hundreds each day,
approved to enter the United States in a matter of hours.
They
walk out to a Laredo street and are greeted by volunteers from Cubanos
en Libertad, or Cubans in Freedom, a nonprofit. The volunteers help them
arrange travel to their U.S. destination — often Miami — and start
applying for work permits and such federal benefits as food stamps and
Medicaid, available by law to Cubans immediately after their arrival.
“Right
now I feel like the freest Cuban in the whole world,” said Rodny
NĂ¡poles, 39, a coach of the Cuban national women’s water polo team who
crossed into Laredo this week.
ILANA PANICH-LINSMAN
Cubans wait on the
steps of Cubanos en Libertad for family members to pass through the port
of entry in Laredo on Tuesday. More Cubans are entering the U.S.
through Texas under a law passed in 1966, fueling tensions at the
border, where comparable Mexican and Central American immigrants are
detained and sent to immigration court. (Ilana Panich-Linsman/The New
York Times)
The friendly reception given the Cubans, an
artifact of hostile relations with the Castro government, is a stark
contrast with the treatment of Central American families fleeing
violence in their countries. And it is creating tensions in this
predominantly Mexican-American city, where residents saw how Central
American migrants, who came in an influx in 2014, were detained by the
Border Patrol and ordered to appear in immigration courts.
“The
people here are starting to feel resentment,” said U.S. Rep. Henry
Cuellar, D-Laredo. “They are asking, is it fair that the Cubans get to
stay and the Central Americans are being deported?”
Town officials
have warned Cubans not to loiter in the streets. Local bus companies
complain that Cubans are chartering special vans to travel.
http://www.statesman.com/news/news/state-regional/tensions-simmer-as-cubans-breeze-across-texas-bord/nqPRp/
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