Mexico sends Cubans home under new accord

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By JULIE WATSON, Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — Mexico sent home the first group of illegal Cuban migrants under a new accord aimed at cutting off an increasingly violent human-trafficking route to the United States, the government said Thursday.

The 41 migrants left the resort city of Cancun aboard a Mexican navy ship taking them back to Cuba, a statement from the navy and the Interior Department said. Before Mexico signed the agreement with Cuba in October, authorities rarely sent migrants back to the communist island.

Until now, Cubans were detained briefly in Mexico, then given 10- to 30-day exit orders. That allowed them to continue on to Texas, where all that is required of Cuban migrants are identity documents and medical and background checks before they are welcomed to America.

As it became harder to dodge U.S. Coast Guard vessels and reach Florida by sea to qualify for U.S. residency, Cuban migrants in recent years have increasingly chosen Mexico — often heading to the coast near Cancun — as their route to the United States.

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