From Mariel to 'Wet Foot, Dry Foot': How Cuban Migration Shaped South Florida
Few events shaped modern South Florida like the waves of Cuban migration that crossed the Florida Straits in 1980 and 1994. Together with a set of unusual federal policies, they help explain why Cuban Americans hold such a large place in the state's life and politics.
The Mariel boatlift, 1980
The crisis began on April 1, 1980, when Cubans crashed a bus through the fence of the Peruvian Embassy in Havana and won asylum. Soon, more than 10,000 people crowded onto the embassy grounds, according to an oral history from the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. Fidel Castro then said any Cuban who wanted to leave could go, and opened the port of Mariel. The Immigration History project dates that announcement to April 20.
Cuban exiles in Florida sent about 1,700 rented shrimp and fishing boats to collect relatives, History.com reports. By the time the U.S. and Cuba negotiated an end in October, roughly 125,000 Cubans and about 25,000 Haitians had reached South Florida, the Congressional Research Service found.
Strain and stigma
Arrivals were processed in Key West, and many were moved to camps such as Eglin Air Force Base, History.com notes. Castro also sent out people his government labeled undesirable, including some with criminal records, and the "Marielitos" faced harsh press coverage. Miami's housing vacancy rate was near 1%, and Congress set aside $484 million that June to resettle refugees and help affected communities, ADST's history records.
The 1994 rafter crisis
On Aug. 12, 1994, Castro again said Cubans could leave however they could. Over the next month, the Coast Guard picked up 30,879 people at sea, many on homemade rafts, according to Florida International University's Cuban Research Institute. They were taken to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay. Under accords reached in September 1994 and May 1995, the U.S. agreed to admit at least 20,000 Cuban immigrants a year and began returning Cubans caught at sea, CRS explains. Most of those held at Guantanamo were eventually paroled into the U.S.
"Wet foot, dry foot" and its end
The result became known as "wet foot, dry foot." Cubans stopped at sea were generally sent back, while those who reached land could usually stay and, under the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, apply for permanent residency after a year. President Barack Obama ended the policy, effective immediately, on Jan. 12, 2017, PBS NewsHour reported. The Cuban Adjustment Act itself remained law.
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