The first few dozen of thousands of Cubans trying to reach the United States after being stranded for months in Costa Rica crossed the Mexican border into Texas Friday, ending a dangerous odyssey.
They were processed in a Mexican immigration office in the border town of Nuevo Laredo and walked out on the other side of the frontier in Laredo, Texas.
Migrants group Cubanos en Libertad, an organization which helps Cubans arriving in Texas, said 59 had crossed the border.
Most came to join family members already living in the United States, many of them in Florida, said a representative of the group, Alejandro Ruiz.
"Last night 12 arrived after traveling by plane to Nuevo Laredo and this morning another 47 arrived by bus," he said, after the 40-hour drive from the southeastern state of Chiapas.
Under US law, they automatically get permission to stay and are put on a fast track to permanent residency after one year.
That welcome is the sweet reward the Cubans sought after a grueling trek through South and Central America that was fueled in part, and ironically, by the thaw in US-Cuban ties.
"We are happy because we achieved our goal," said one of the Cubans, Randy Cuevas, 29, in a video posted on the Facebook page of Cubanos en Libertad.
"This was my dream, the dream of all Cubans," said another, 20-year-old Lilian de Gonzalez.
The dozen who arrived late Thursday and early Friday were among 180 who set out from Costa Rica this week, first by plane to El Salvador -- skipping over Cuba ally Nicaragua, which would not let them pass -- and then by bus through Guatemala to Mexico.
That bus trip alone took 13 hours. It was organized by regional governments and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
They were allowed to travel to Mexico after its government reached an agreement with various central American countries.
- Thousands still stranded -
But nearly 8,000 others remain stranded in Costa Rica, waiting since late last year to make the trip north to the United States and the lure of a better life.
Thousands of Cubans have left the Communist island in recent months over concerns that the re-establishment of US-Cuban diplomatic relations will prompt Washington to drop its policy of giving them automatic residence when they set foot in the United States.
For many of the Cubans, their trip began in Ecuador, where until recently they could travel without a visa.
From there they made their way through Colombia, into Panama and then Costa Rica, often traveling along smuggling routes.
Many of the Cubans experienced extortion and kidnapping threats along the way. The trip through Mexico is particularly daunting: there, crime and drug gangs are known to prey ruthlessly on migrants, often kidnapping and holding them for ransom and then killing them if no one back home pays up.
"It has been a tough fight. I have been putting up with this since October. But in the end I made it, thank God and thank everyone," new arrival Cuevas said of his trip.
"It was a tough odyssey."
The first few dozen of thousands of Cubans trying to reach the United States after being stranded for months in Costa Rica crossed the Mexican border into Texas Friday, ending a dangerous odyssey.
They were processed in a Mexican immigration office in the border town of Nuevo Laredo and walked out on the other side of the frontier in Laredo, Texas.
Migrants group Cubanos en Libertad, an organization which helps Cubans arriving in Texas, said 59 had crossed the border.
Most came to join family members already living in the United States, many of them in Florida, said a representative of the group, Alejandro Ruiz.
“Last night 12 arrived after traveling by plane to Nuevo Laredo and this morning another 47 arrived by bus,” he said, after the 40-hour drive from the southeastern state of Chiapas.
Under US law, they automatically get permission to stay and are put on a fast track to permanent residency after one year.
That welcome is the sweet reward the Cubans sought after a grueling trek through South and Central America that was fueled in part, and ironically, by the thaw in US-Cuban ties.
“We are happy because we achieved our goal,” said one of the Cubans, Randy Cuevas, 29, in a video posted on the Facebook page of Cubanos en Libertad.
“This was my dream, the dream of all Cubans,” said another, 20-year-old Lilian de Gonzalez.
The dozen who arrived late Thursday and early Friday were among 180 who set out from Costa Rica this week, first by plane to El Salvador — skipping over Cuba ally Nicaragua, which would not let them pass — and then by bus through Guatemala to Mexico.
That bus trip alone took 13 hours. It was organized by regional governments and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
They were allowed to travel to Mexico after its government reached an agreement with various central American countries.
– Thousands still stranded –
But nearly 8,000 others remain stranded in Costa Rica, waiting since late last year to make the trip north to the United States and the lure of a better life.
Thousands of Cubans have left the Communist island in recent months over concerns that the re-establishment of US-Cuban diplomatic relations will prompt Washington to drop its policy of giving them automatic residence when they set foot in the United States.
For many of the Cubans, their trip began in Ecuador, where until recently they could travel without a visa.
From there they made their way through Colombia, into Panama and then Costa Rica, often traveling along smuggling routes.
Many of the Cubans experienced extortion and kidnapping threats along the way. The trip through Mexico is particularly daunting: there, crime and drug gangs are known to prey ruthlessly on migrants, often kidnapping and holding them for ransom and then killing them if no one back home pays up.
“It has been a tough fight. I have been putting up with this since October. But in the end I made it, thank God and thank everyone,” new arrival Cuevas said of his trip.
“It was a tough odyssey.”
