The country's Homeland Security secretary visited South Florida Monday to tout the Biden administration's new immigration policies.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas met with leaders in the Haitian community in Little Haiti and was set to meet with Cuban leaders later in the day.
Mayorkas said the new policies, which offer parole for citizens of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who apply online, fly to the United States and find a financial sponsor, are working.
The Biden administration said Jan. 5 that it would admit up to 30,000 people a month from those countries for two years with authorization to work.
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Mayorkas attended a meeting with Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, where there was a lot of talk of cooperation between the federal government and locals to accommodate migrants who are arriving in the county.
Levine Cava spoke of needing more help from the federal government, specifically financial aid to help absorb migrants.
Many have come by sea, mostly from Cuba and Haiti, in recent months.
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Mayorkas and others want as many people to know about the legal pathways so people stop coming in illegally.
"The issue is personal to me, I came here in 1960 from Havana with my parents and my sister, and my father had lost everything he had built for himself and for his family in Cuba, so it is a profoundly personal issue to me," Mayorkas said.
U.S. authorities reported last week that they have seen a 97% decline in illegal border crossings by migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
The same week, U.S. Coast Guard officials said they stopped more than 1,000 migrants from reaching the U.S. by sea.
Coast Guard officials point to recent lousy weather which could be deterring people from coming, but said it’s too early to tell whether the new parole policy is reducing the number of people trying to reach the U.S. by boat.
