Refugees find route to U.S. easier via Mexico

Our immigration nightmare isn't just about Americans' well-being. As we are nation sympathetic to Cuban refugees, where we essentially spit on them with what looks like preferred migration from Mexico.

It took Mr. Savater almost four days to reach the Mexican island of Isla Mujeres in a rickety boat made from wood, fiberglass and aluminum, powered by a jerry-rigged motor used for irrigating fields. The 15 men and one woman with him took turns bailing.

“Its extremely dangerous,” Mr. Savater recounted in a recent interview from Cancún. “I saw myself dead. I suffered a lot.”

But his next step was far easier: a flight to the United States-Mexican border, with the help of money wired from relatives in south Florida. Some American officials are calling this new approach — Cubans strolling up to desert border stations and seeking political asylum — dusty foot.

So much easier than sailing directly to Florida. Whatever works right?

The new route is not just diverting migrants. Smugglers are shifting too, resulting in turf battles that are believed to be behind a string of murders in recent months of Cuban nationals in the Yucatán. The same place that Cubans are coming ashore is crisscrossed by narcotics traffickers and there is fear that the two businesses could merge.