Driven by a government crackdown on dissent, widespread poverty and a lack of opportunities, young Cubans are leaving the island in a new exodus by land and sea that has already eclipsed the balsero crisis of 1994, when more than 35,000 Cubans took to the sea in makeshift rafts.
In the five months between October and the end of February, 47,000 Cubans arrived at the Mexico-U.S. border, according to the latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics.
That number is larger than the 39,303 Cubans who came in the entire fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2021, a figure that already marked a steep increase over previous years.
Read more from our news partner at The Miami Herald.
