Essay On Mariel Boatlift

2160 Words5 Pages

Between April and October of 1980, over 125,000 people fled to the United States from Cuba. This massive exodus became known as the “Mariel boatlift.” The Mariel boatlift was the third-wave of emigration from Cuba since Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. The Mariel exodus was also the largest. The simple answer to why the boatlift began is to say that the Cuban people were fleeing communist oppression. The simple answer is not incorrect; however, it is incomplete. There were a plentitude of factors which contributed to the Mariel boatlift’s occurrence. These factors date back to the decay of U.S.-Cuba relations when Fidel Castro seized power in 1959, and expanded as the result of the Cuban recession of 1979 and 1980 and disenchantment with the revolution. To add, the Mariel boatlift left a serious impact on the United States as the flood of emigrants continued over the five month period. Not only did the boatlift lead to the loss of Carter’s 1980 election campaign, it also exposed major issues in Fidel Castro’s regime.
When Castro came to power in 1959, …show more content…

The situations for criminals who came on the Mariel boatlift was particularly interesting, as many remained stuck in a sort of legal limbo. As mentioned before, Marielitos did not enter the country legally, so they were defined as “illegal aliens.” Illegal aliens lack the protections that a U.S. citizen has. In a normal situation, if an illegal alien commits a crime, they are expelled from the country the immigrated to. Marielitos who committed crimes were in an entirely unique circumstance because the United States was unable to expel them. Castro refused to take back those he pushed into exile. This created a position of legal limbo for many Marielitos, where the Marielitos that did commit crimes were put into prisons with no clue as to whether or not they would be released since no one would take

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