The Tico Times sat down with Communications Minister Mauricio Herrera to talk about how the government is approaching the latest wave of unauthorized immigration, which included more than 1,400 people in May.
As news came over the weekend that Panama would carry out another airlift to Mexico for 3,800 unauthorized Cuban migrants there, hundreds of migrants from across Africa remain in Costa Rica with no way forward.
Panama reached a deal to transfer nearly 4,000 U.S.-bound Cubans stranded on its territory to Mexico and announced Monday that the country would close its southern border with Colombia to Cubans without visas.
Finding a country willing to accept these migrants is going to be a herculean task, if not "impossible," says the Migration Policy Institute's Demetrios Papademetriou.
Arguments are scheduled to start Monday in the U.S. Supreme Court battle over President Barack Obama's plan to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation.
President Luis Guillermo Solís, migration and security officials met at Casa Presidencial Wednesday for an emergency meeting following the border protest involving Cuban migrants.
Immigration officials accepted refugee applications from 60 of the 116 migrants. The remaining 56 were returned to Panama, according to Immigration Administration spokeswoman Seidy Muñoz.
Groups that have called for stricter immigration limits have said the raids are long overdue, although they remain skeptical about whether the scale will be large enough to deter illegal immigration from Central America.
Travelers at Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaría International Airport waited in long lines Friday as immigration authorities reportedly tightened passport controls.
