Number: RS20468
Title: Cuban Migration Policy and Issues
Authors: Ruth Ellen Wasem, Domestic Social Policy Division 
Abstract: Many of the issues surrounding Cuban migration are unique but not new. Normal immigration from Cuba has been elusive since Fidel Castro came to power. Over the past 40 years, the practice of Cubans fleeing by boat to the United States has become commonplace, and at some points reached the levels of a mass exodus. Since the last upsurge of "boat people" in the mid-1990s, the United States and Cuba worked toward establishing safe, legal immigration, which include returning migrants interdicted by the U.S. Coast Guard. These migration policies, however, are not without critics. Cuban interdictions hit an 11-year high of 2,810 in FY2006.
Pages: 6
Date: January 22, 2007