Cuba-U.S. migration and the human trafficking problem

Last Friday, U.S. federal courts sentenced Luis Perez of southern Florida to 10 years in prison. As the head of a human trafficking network (which operated partially out of his garage), he is not only guilty of bringing numerous illegal Cuban migrants into the United States, but of providing dangerous and inhumane conditions for passage to many Cubans. His operations resulted in the drowning death of at least one individual in November 2007, in an event that brought the human trafficking network to the attention of law enforcement.

Trafficking problems have arisen between Cuba and the United States because of (1) disharmony in the two countries’ policies on migration, and (2) the disjuncture between government policy and the realities of each country.

On the first point:

The United States provides 20,000 visas to Cubans annually and gives refuge to every other Cuban that makes it to U.S. shores, essentially providing a pull for potential migrants. Meanwhile, Cuba’s emigration policy makes legal immigration very difficult. The country is one of the few in the world today that requires its people to obtain prior government approval to leave the country either permanently or on visit. Approval comes in the form of an exit permit called the “tarjeta blanca,” which is only given to individuals who have already secured a visa from another country (and sometimes not even to them: Cuba apparently routinely denies its citizens this permission to leave). And according to some sources, the tarjeta costs around $400—a virtually unreachable price in a country where the average monthly wage is $15-20. Illegal exit, of course, is a criminal act punishable by fine or up to three years in jail. The combination of these factors—a relatively welcoming U.S. policy and a Cuban policy that limits legal avenues for migration—creates a space for illegal migration.

On the second point:

Having a restrictive emigration policy when economic and political forces continue to push migration also makes illegal migration inevitable, and from an island, it is all the more dangerous. Cubans migrate in many directions, but Florida, only 90 miles away, is the closest and most probable destination for the homemade boats and rafts that set out illegally from the island. It is estimated that approximately 1.5 million Cubans live abroad in 100 countries, and that of those, 1.3 million are resident in the United States. 

Yet poor relations between Havana and Washington have now long stood in the way of the creation of a comprehensive plan for controlled and safe migration between the two countries. The respective policies clash, to the detriment of migrant safety in the last fifty years. Luis Perez is just one manifestation of the problem.