Mexico receives 270 Cuban migrants from Costa Rica and Panama

Mexico on Wednesday received 270 Cuban migrants who had been stranded in Costa Rica and Panama since last November on their way to the United States, said the National Institute of Migration.

As many as 125 Cubans arrived in Nuevo Laredo in the northern state of Tamaulipas from Costa Rica, and 145 arrived in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, from Panama, where another 1,300 Cubans have been stranded.

The total number of Cubans who have arrived in Mexico since Jan. 14 has reached around 1,900, and all of them have received a temporary visa valid for 20 days for them to travel on to the United States.

Due to the Cuban Adjustment Act, which gives Cubans temporary residency in the United States and the right to work almost immediately upon arrival, thousands of Cubans are leaving their country to the United States.

After Nicaragua shut its border in November to fend off the flood of Cuban migrants, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama and Guatemala agreed to facilitate the migration of the Cubans to Mexican soil through direct flights to the northern border or through land journeys to the southern border. Endi