Move Back
![Cuban_migrants_Latino_Top2]()
In this Friday, Nov. 20, 2015 photo, a Cuban migrant wearing a t-shirt with a US flag design, uses his cell phone at a shelter in La Cruz, Costa Rica, border with Nicaragua. Cubans interviewed in shelters along Costa Rica's northern border with Nicaragua almost universally pointed to cheap smartphones, data plans and Facebook as the secret of their success to make to the U.S. border mostly unscahthed. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)![Cuban_migrants_Latino_10]()
In this Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015 photo, Cuban migrants line up for breakfast given to them by an evangelical church, outside of the border control building in Penas Blancas, Costa Rica, on the border with Nicaragua. Thousands of Cuban migrants have been able to make the trip to the U.S. thanks to a constant flow of information between migrants starting the journey and those who have just completed it. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)![Cuban_migrants_Latino_1]()
In this Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015 photo, flip flops with the design of the U.S. flag lay next to its owner, a Cuban migrant sleeping inside of the public restroom of the border control building in Penas Blancas, Costa Rica, border with Nicaragua. Once they reach the U.S. border, they can just show up at an established U.S. port of entry and declare their nationality, avoiding the dangerous desert crossings that confront many migrants who try to avoid U.S. border patrol. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)![Cuban_migrants_Latino_2]()
In this Friday, Nov. 20, 2015 photo, Cuban migrants Annieli de los Reyes and Carlos Mena talk with a Annieli's mother back in Cuba, at a shelter in La Cruz, Costa Rica, on the border with Nicaragua. "We have been able to stay in contact with all the persons that are ahead of us and help those behind," the couple said when asked on how technology is helping them on their trip. The local sales office for telecommunications company Movistar has increased the number of sales vans along the border from two to seven, most stationed permanently outside the Cubans' temporary encampments in schools and churches, selling 2-for-1 $3-per-megabyte data packages to a steady stream of Cuban migrants. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)![Cuban_migrants_Latino_3]()
In this Friday, Nov. 20, 2015 photo, Cuban migrant Yannier Rodriguez checks his cellphone in La Cruz, Costa Rica, near the border with Nicaragua. Rodriguez joined a highly organized, well-funded and increasingly successful homebrewed effort to make human traffickers obsolete by using smartphones and messaging apps on much of the 3,400-mile overland journey that's become Cubans' main route to the U.S. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)![Cuban_migrants_Latino_Top]()
In this Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015 photo, a Cuban woman migrant uses her cell phone while other Cubans sleep, outside of the border control building in Penas Blancas, Costa Rica, on the border with Nicaragua. Some 45,000 Cubans will move by bus, boat, taxi and on foot from Ecuador and other South and Central American countries to the Texas and California borders this year, afraid that the normalization of relations between the U.S. and Cuba will mean an imminent end to special immigration privileges that date to the opening of the Cold War. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)![Cuban_migrants_Latino_9a]()
In this Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015 photo, a Cuban migrant with a tattoo of a peace dove, walks outside of the border control building in Penas Blancas, Costa Rica, on the border with Nicaragua, Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015. Cubans still must navigate jungles, rivers, at least seven international borders and countries in the grip of gangs responsible for some of the world's highest homicide rates, to make it to the United States. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)![Cuban_migrants_Latino_5]()
In this Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015 photo, Cuban migrants sleep inside a public restroom of the border control building, in Penas Blancas, Costa Rica, border with Nicaragua. Central America governments have called an emergency meeting on recent Cuban migrant crisis in El Salvador on Tuesday. Nicaragua, a close socialist ally of Cuba, has not publicly responded to a Costa Rican proposal to create a "humanitarian corridor" for Cubans to move unhindered toward the U.S. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)![Cuban_migrants_Latino_6]()
In this Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015 photo, Cuban migrants uses their cellphones outside of the bathroom of the border control building in Penas Blancas, Costa Rica, border with Nicaragua. Cuban migrants have joined a well-funded and increasingly successful homebrewed effort to make human traffickers obsolete by using smartphones and messaging apps on much of the 3,400-mile (5,500-kilometer) overland journey that's become Cubans' main route to the U.S. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)![Cuban_migrants_Latino_4]()
In this Friday, Nov. 20, 2015 photo, Cuban migrants play dominoes inside a shelter in La Cruz, Costa Rica, near the border with Nicaragua. Cuba has made a series of public statements blaming U.S. emigration policies for drawing so many from their homeland, draining the country of badly needed professionals and working-age adults. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)![Cuban_migrants_Latino_7]()
In this Friday, Nov. 20, 2015 photo, Cuban women migrants check their cellphones outside of the public bathroom of the border control building in Penas Blancas, Costa Rica, on the border with Nicaragua. Cubans are not immune to the dangers of northbound migration. A migrants' rights group said in July that Mexican border officials had been holding Cubans in border inspection stations until their relatives in the U.S. sent as much as $5,000 to win their freedom. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)![Cuban_migrants_Latino_8]()
In this Friday, Nov. 20, 2015 photo, a Cuban woman migrant navigates a Facebook page set up in support of them in Costa Rica, on her cellphone, in La Cruz, Costa Rica, near the border with Nicaragua. Cubans are able to cross some of the world's most dangerous territory relatively unscathed by the corrupt border guards, criminal gangs and human traffickers known as coyotes who make life hell for so many other Latin American migrants. Key to that ability is the constant flow of information between migrants starting the journey and those who have just completed it. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)Cuban migrants hoping to get to U.S. wait in Central America
Some 45,000 Cubans are expected to move by bus, boat, taxi and on foot from Ecuador and other South and Central American countries to the Texas and California borders this year. Thousands got stuck trying to cross Costa Rica into Nicaragua in recent weeks.
Move Forward
- Cuban migrants hoping to get to U.S. wait in Central America
