Cuban migration to the United States has shaped South Florida for more than six decades. Understanding the waves and the laws behind them explains why Miami became the center of the Cuban American community.
In this article
The Cuban Adjustment Act, signed on November 2, 1966, created a fast track to permanent residency for Cubans and shaped migration to South Florida for decades.
1959-1973: the first waves
After the 1959 revolution, many Cubans left for the United States, where they were generally admitted as refugees. Between 1960 and 1962, Operation Pedro Pan brought more than 14,000 unaccompanied children. From 1965 to 1973, the so-called Freedom Flights carried roughly 260,000 people from Cuba to Miami.
The Cuban Adjustment Act
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Cuban Adjustment Act on November 2, 1966. The law allows eligible Cubans who are in the United States to apply for permanent residence after a period of physical presence, a much faster route than for most other immigrant groups. It remains one of the most important pieces of Cuban migration law.
Mariel and the rafters crisis
In 1980, the Mariel boatlift brought about 125,000 Cubans to South Florida in a few months. In 1984, the two countries reached an immigration agreement under which Cuba agreed to take back 2,746 Mariel arrivals considered excludable. In 1994, another crisis pushed tens of thousands of balseros to sail on rafts, leading to new bilateral migration accords.
Policy shifts and recent years
From 1995 until January 2017, the “wet foot, dry foot” policy generally allowed Cubans who reached U.S. soil to stay, while those intercepted at sea were returned. It ended in January 2017. In recent years, new surges of Cuban arrivals and changing immigration rules have kept the issue at the center of political debate in Miami and Washington. Because policies change often, check current rules with official U.S. immigration sources.
