The Mariel boatlift () was a mass emigration of Cubans who traveled from

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

's Mariel Harbor to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

between April 15 and October 31, 1980. The term "" is used to refer to these refugees in both

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

and English. While the exodus was triggered by a sharp downturn in the Cuban economy, it followed on the heels of generations of Cubans who had immigrated to the United States in the preceding decades. After 10,000 Cubans tried to gain asylum by taking refuge on the grounds of the

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

vian embassy, the

Cuban government Cuba is communist and has had a socialist political system since 1961 based on the "one state, one party" principle. Cuba is constitutionally defined as a single-party Marxist–Leninist socialist republic with semi-presidential powers. The pre ...

announced that anyone who wanted to leave could do so. The ensuing mass migration was organized by

Cuban Americans Cuban Americans ( or ) are Americans who immigrated from or are descended from immigrants from Cuba. As of 2023, Cuban Americans were the fourth largest Hispanic and Latino American group in the United States after Mexican Americans, States ...

, with the agreement of Cuban President

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...

. The Cuban government considered the exodus a sort of social cleansing of the nations' so-called undesirables and organized acts of repudiation against prospective emigrants. The arrival of the refugees in the United States created political problems for U.S. President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

. The

Carter administration Jimmy Carter's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 39th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Jimmy Carter, his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. Carter, a Democratic Party ...

struggled to develop a consistent response to the immigrants. The Mariel boatlift was ended by mutual agreement between the two governments in late October 1980. By then, an estimated 125,000 Cubans had reached

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

Background

Cuba–United States relations

In the late 1970s, U.S. President

sought to improve relations with

. He lifted all restrictions on travel to Cuba, and in September 1977, both countries established an

Interests Section A protecting power is a country that represents another sovereign state—the protected power—in a third country where the protected power lacks its own formal diplomatic representation (e.g., lacks an embassy or consulate). It is common fo ...

in each other's capital. However, relations were still strained because Cuba supported the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

's military interventions in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

with their own. The two countries struggled to reach agreement on a relaxation of the US embargo on trade to permit the export of a select list of medicines to Cuba without provoking Carter's political opponents in the

US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

. Ten members of Congress visited Cuba in December 1978, and the Cuban government later released Frank C. Emmick, the US manager of a business in Cuba who had been prevented from leaving in 1963, accused of being a

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

agent, and sentenced to 50 years in prison. A group of 55 people whose parents brought them from Cuba returned for three weeks in December 1978 in a rare instance of Cuba allowing the return of Cuban-born émigrés. In December 1978, both countries agreed upon their maritime border, and the next month, they were working on an agreement to improve their communications in the

Straits of Florida The Straits of Florida, Florida Straits, or Florida Strait () is a strait located south-southeast of the North American mainland, generally accepted to be between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, and between the Florida Keys (U.S.) an ...

. The US responded to Cuban relaxation of restrictions on emigration by allowing Cuban-Americans to send up to $500 to an emigrating relative (equal to $2,400 in 2023). In November 1978, Castro's government met in

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Cuban Festival of Arts (Carifesta) in July, with flights departing from Tampa, Mexico City, and Montreal.

Haitian immigration to the United States

Before 1980, many Haitian immigrants arrived on American shores by boat. They were not granted legal protection because they were considered economic migrants, rather than political refugees, despite claims made by many Haitians that they were being persecuted by the

Duvalier Duvalier is a French surname, and may refer to: * François Duvalier François Duvalier (; 14 April 190721 April 1971), also known as Papa Doc, was a Haiti, Haitian politician and Haitian Vodou, Vodouisant who served as the president of Haiti ...

regime. U.S. Presidents

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

and

Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Ford assumed the p ...

denied claims of asylum in the United States for Haitian migrants by boat. A backlash by the

Congressional Black Caucus The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is made up of Black members of the United States Congress. Representative Yvette Clarke from New York, the current chairperson, succeeded Steven Horsford from Nevada in 2025. Although most members belong ...

ensued, which claimed that the

U.S. government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, executi ...

was discriminating against Haitian immigrants.

Prelude

Rush to embassies in Cuba

Several attempts by Cubans to seek asylum at the embassies of South American countries set the stage for the events of the spring of 1980. On 21 March 1978, two young Cuban writers who had been punished for dissent and denied permission to emigrate, Reynaldo Colas Pineda and Esteban Luis Cárdenas Junquera, unsuccessfully sought asylum in the Argentine embassy in Havana and were sentenced to two years in prison. On May 13, 1979, 12 Cubans sought to take asylum in the Venezuelan embassy in Havana by crashing their bus through a fence to gain entry to the grounds and the building. In January 1980, groups of asylum seekers took refuge in the Peruvian and Venezuelan embassies, and Venezuela called its ambassador home for consultations to protest that they had been fired on by the Cuban police. In March, Peru recalled its ambassador, who had denied entry to a dozen Cubans who were seeking asylum in his embassy. The embassy invasions then became a confrontation between the Cuban government and the Havana embassies. A group of Cubans attempted to enter the Peruvian embassy in the last week of March, and on April 1, a group of six driving a city bus was successful in doing so, and a Cuban guard was killed by a ricocheting bullet. The Peruvians announced that they would not hand those who were seeking asylum over to Cuban police. The embassy grounds contained two 2-story buildings and gardens covering an area the size of a US football field, or 6,400 square yards The Cuban government announced on 4 April that it was withdrawing its security forces, who were normally officers from the Interior Ministry armed with automatic weapons, from that embassy: "We cannot protect embassies that do not cooperate in their own protection." Following that announcement, about 50 Cubans entered the embassy grounds. By nightfall on April 5, that number had grown to 2,000, including many children and a few former political prisoners.

Approval to emigrate

Cuban officials announced through loudspeakers that anyone who had not entered the embassy grounds by force was free to emigrate if another country granted them entry. Peruvian President Francisco Morales had announced a willingness to accept asylum seekers. Diplomats from several countries met with the Peruvians to discuss the situation, including the crowd's requirements of food and shelter. An official of the US State Department stated on April 5 that the country would both grant asylum to bona fide political prisoners and handle other requests to immigrate by following standard procedures, which provided for the issuance of 400 immigrant visas per month to Cubans, with preference given to those with family members who were already in the United States. By April 6, the crowd had reached 10,000, and as sanitary conditions on the embassy grounds deteriorated, Cuban authorities prevented further access. The Cuban government called those seeking asylum "bums, antisocial elements, delinquents, and trash." By April 8, 3,700 of the asylum-seekers had accepted safe-conduct passes to return to their homes, and the government began to provide shipments of food and water. Peru tried to organize an international relief program, and it won commitments first from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela to help with resettlement, and then from Spain, which agreed to accept 500. By April 11, the

began to furnish asylum seekers with documents that guaranteed their right to emigrate, including permanent safe-conduct passes and passports. In the first two days, about 3,000 received those papers and left the grounds. On 14 April, US President Jimmy Carter announced the US would accept 3,500 refugees and that Costa Rica had agreed to provide a staging area for screening potential immigrants.

Emigration process and violence

The Cuban government organized acts of repudiation against those who wished to leave the island. Mobs would sometimes beat their targets, force them to walk around with accusatory signs on their necks, or trash their homes. The emigrants were accused to be loafers, criminals, and drug addicts, and their expulsion was allegedly a kind of

social cleansing Social cleansing () is social group-based killing that consists of the elimination of members of society who are considered "undesirable", including, but not limited to, the homeless, criminals, street children, the elderly, the poor, the weak, t ...

. The physical assaults and verbal taunts that occurred during acts of repudiation were organized for months and created a sense of fear throughout Cuba. Many who participated in the violence did so to remain un-persecuted themselves, and some participants even left in the boatlift. The Cuban government facilitated an emigration process that gave special privilege to those who were socially undesirable. People deemed homosexual would be allowed to leave the country. Those with gender non-conforming behavior were especially targeted by authorities for departure. Some of them were given the option between emigration and jail time, in order to encourage their departure from the island. Many Cubans would enter police stations and state that they engaged in homosexual behavior whether true or not, simply to be granted permission to leave the country. File:Protestas Exodo de Mariel.jpg, Demonstrations in

expressing disdain for marielitos and support for the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

File:1980march.png, March in Cuba condemning Mariel emigrants, alluding that they are Gusanos. File:Acto de repudio.png, Act of repudiation conducted in Cuba during 1980.

Concerns of Haitian refugees

The

was negotiating the legal status of Haitian refugees as the Mariel boatlift began. As Cuban refugees began to arrive in the United States, a focus was put on the treatment of Haitian refugees, and Carter declared Haitian refugees and Cuban refugees would be accepted in the same manner. The United States would label all refugees that would come in during the Mariel boatlift as "Cuban-Haitian entrants," to be approved at the discretion of the Attorney General.

Exodus

Airlift from Cuba

At first, emigrants were permitted to leave Cuba via flights to Costa Rica, followed by eventual relocation to countries that would accept them. After news coverage of celebratory masses of Cubans emigrating by flight to Costa Rica, the Cuban government declared that emigrants had to leave by flying directly to their accepting country; 7,500 Cubans left the country by those initial flights.

Boatlift

Departure from Cuba and Haiti

Castro stated ultimately on 20 April that the port of Mariel would be opened to anyone wishing to leave Cuba if they had someone to pick them up. Soon after Castro's decree, many Cuban Americans began making arrangements to pick up refugees in the harbor. On April 21, the first boat from the harbor docked in Key West and held 48 refugees. By April 25 as many as 300 boats were picking up refugees in Mariel Harbor. Cuban officials also packed refugees into Cuban fishing vessels. Around 1,700 boats brought thousands of Cubans from Mariel to Florida between the months of April and October in that year. Haitian refugees had been continuously coming to the United States before the Mariel boatlift and continued to do so with the flotilla.

United States and Cuba policy changes

After the arrival of thousands of refugees,

Florida Governor The governor of Florida is the head of government of the U.S. state of Florida. The governor is the head of the executive branch of the government of Florida and is the commander-in-chief of the Florida National Guard and Florida State Gu ...

Bob Graham Daniel Robert Graham (November 9, 1936 – April 16, 2024) was an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 38th List of governors of Florida, governor of Florida from 1979 to 1987 and a United States Senate, United States senat ...

declared a state of emergency in Monroe and Dade Counties on April 28. According to a US Coast Guard report, 15,761 refugees had arrived in Florida by early May. On May 6, Carter declared a state of emergency in the areas of Florida most "severely affected" by the exodus, and an open arms policy in which all refugees fleeing Cuba would receive temporary status. On June 20 the Cuban-Haitian Entrant Program (CHEP) was established, and Haitians would be given the same legal status as Cuban refugees in the United States during the Mariel boatlift. Around 25,000 Haitians would enter the United States during the boatlift. In response, Carter then called for a blockade on the flotilla by the US Coast Guard. At least 1,400 boats would be seized, but many slipped by, and over 100,000 more Cuban and Haitian refugees continued to pour into Florida over the next five months. The Mariel Boatlift would end by agreement between the United States and Cuba in October 1980. File:Two boats during Mariel Boatlift (7164184055) (cropped).jpg, An overloaded boat of Marielitos in

Key West Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida, at the southern end of the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it con ...

File:USCGC Active (WMEC 618) Mariel Boatlift (7352293542).jpg, A U.S. Coast Guard vessel in Key West during the Mariel boatlift File:Pier B during Mariel Boatlift (7164183301).jpg, Pier B of the Truman Annex during the boatlift File:El Tony and others during Mariel Boatlift (7349394034).jpg, Ships at Pier B at the Truman Annex File:Pier B during Mariel Boatlift (7349393900).jpg, Cuban refugees at Pier B of the Truman Annex File:Boat with Cuban refugees during Mariel Boatlift (7164182641).jpg, Boat filled with Cuban refugees arriving at Key West

Arrival

Miami

Refugees were processed at camps set up in the greater Miami area, generally at decommissioned missile defense sites. Other sites were established at the

Miami Orange Bowl The Miami Orange Bowl was an outdoor athletic stadium in Miami, Florida, from 1937 until 2008. The stadium was located in the Little Havana neighborhood west of Greater Downtown Miami, downtown Miami. The venue was considered a landmark and ser ...

and at various churches throughout the area. Some sites were established to segregate the refugees until they could be provided with initial processing at places such as the Nike–Hercules sites at Key Largo and Krome Avenue. Once they were initially processed and documented, the refugees were quickly transferred to larger compounds in the metropolitan area to allow them to be reunited with relatives who already lived in the United States and to allow interaction with various social-action agencies such as Catholic Charities and the American Red Cross. Regional resettlement facilities became crucial sites in the social and cultural negotiation of the status and desirability of Mariel Cubans. As the Haitian refugees started arriving, interpreters were found to be in short supply for

Haitian Creole Haitian Creole (; , ; , ), or simply Creole (), is a French-based creole languages, French-based creole language spoken by 10 to 12million people worldwide, and is one of the two official languages of Haiti (the other being French), where it ...

, and interpreters from the local Haitian community were put under contract through the

Federal Emergency Management Agency The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...

(FEMA). As the end of the initial crisis period wound down and after the vetting of the refugees who could be sponsored had run its course, the decision was made to transfer the "hard to sponsor" refugees, which included those with criminal records, to longer-term processing sites at

Fort Chaffee Fort Chaffee Joint Maneuver Training Center, also known as Fort Chaffee, is an Arkansas Army National Guard Military base, installation located in western Arkansas, adjacent to the city of Fort Smith, Arkansas, Fort Smith. Established as Camp C ...

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

Fort Indiantown Gap Fort Indiantown Gap, also referred to as "The Gap" or "FIG", is a census-designated place and National Guard Training Center primarily located in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, United States. A portion of the installation is located in eastern ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

and Fort McCoy in

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

McDuffie riot

During the Mariel boatlift the McDuffie riots were raging in the Liberty City and Overtown neighborhoods of Miami. It has been argued the riots were exacerbated by the diversion of social and policing resources from African-American communities to care for Mariel refugees, and the anger at the perceived privileges Cuban refugees held compared to African Americans and Haitian refugees.

Processing

Dispersal to refugee camps

Crowded conditions in South Florida immigration processing centers forced U.S. federal agencies to move many of the Marielitos to other centers in Fort Indiantown Gap; Fort McCoy; Camp Santiago,

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

; and Fort Chaffee. Federal civilian police agencies such as the General Services Administration's Federal Protective Service provided officers to maintain order inside the gates of the relocation centers. Riots occurred at the Fort Chaffee center and some detainees escaped, an event that became a campaign issue in the re-election defeat of Governor

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

Evolving legal status

Most refugees were ordinary Cubans. Many had been allowed to leave Cuba for reasons that in the United States were loyalty-neutral or protected, such as tens of thousands were Seventh-Day Adventists or Jehovah's Witnesses. Some had been declared "antisocialist" in Cuba by their CDRs. In the end, only 2.2 percent (or 2,746) of the refugees were classified as serious or violent criminals under US law and denied citizenship on that basis. In 1984, the Mariel refugees from Cuba received permanent legal status under a revision to the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966. Haitians were instead considered to be economic refugees, which made them unable to get the same residency status as Cubans and therefore subject to deportation. Two years later, under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, all Cuban-Haitian entrants who had immigrated in 1980 were able to apply for permanent residency. By 1987, several hundred Marielitos were still detained because they were inadmissible under immigration law. Local police departments had also arrested around seven thousand Marielitos for felonies committed in the United States. Those arrested there served their prison sentences, only to be detained by INS as candidates for deportation. The United States–Cuba Migration Agreement of 1987 allowed for 3,000 former political prisoners to emigrate to the United States and allowed for the deportation of undesired Marielitos. After news of the agreement broke, many detained Marielitos in Oakdale and Atlanta prisons rioted and took hostages. The riots ended after an agreement was reached to stop deportations until all detainees were given a fair review of their deportation case. After 1987, the United States would continue to deport Marielitos who were deemed undesirable.

Later developments

By June 2016, 478 remained to be deported; according to the

U.S. Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior, home, or public security ministries in other countries. Its missions involv ...

, some are elderly or sick, and the Department had no desire to send these back to Cuba. Under a 2016 agreement with the Cuban government, the U.S. will deport the final remaining migrants deemed as serious criminals.

Aftermath

Task Force

An early response to address the aftermath of the Mariel Boatlift was the 1983 City of

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

's formation of the East Little Havana Task Force. Task Force members were appointed by the Miami City Commission, with urban planner and Cuban community leader Jesús Permuy named as its chair. It was tasked with studying the social and economic effects of the boatlift, particularly in

Little Havana Little Havana () is a Neighborhoods in Miami, neighborhood of Miami, Florida, United States. Home to many Cuban exiles, as well as many immigrants from Central and South America, Little Havana is named after Havana, the Capital (political), ...

, which was an epicenter of the migration. The Task Force adjourned a year later and submitted its findings and official recommendations, called ''The East Little Havana Redevelopment Plan'', to the

Miami City Commission The government of the city of Miami, Florida, is organized under the municipal charter, City Charter, which provides for a Mayor-council government, mayor-commissioner form of Local government, city government. Organization City Commission and ...

and

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

's Office in 1984.

Effect on Miami crime

At the time, the

Immigration and Naturalization Service The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was a United States federal government agency under the United States Department of Labor from 1933 to 1940 and under the United States Department of Justice from 1940 to 2003. Refe ...

identified 1,306 migrants as having "questionable" backgrounds. Scholars have found that many Mariel immigrants with criminal records were incarcerated for minor crimes that would not be considered crimes in the US, such as selling goods in the black market. Estimates assert that the Cuban refugees included 2,700 hardened criminals. A 1985 ''

Sun Sentinel The ''Sun Sentinel'' (also known as the ''South Florida Sun Sentinel'', known until 2008 as the ''Sun-Sentinel'', and stylized on its Nameplate (publishing), masthead as ''SunSentinel'') is the main daily newspaper of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, ...

'' magazine article claimed that out of the around 125,000 refugees that entered the United States, around 16,000 to 20,000 were estimated to be criminals. In a 1985 report around 350 to 400 Mariel Cubans were reported to inhabit Dade County jails on a typical day.

Effect on Miami labor market

About half of the Mariel immigrants decided to live in Miami permanently, which resulted in a 7 percent increase in workers in the Miami labor market and a 20 percent increase in the Cuban working population. Aside from the unemployment rate rising from 5.0 percent in April 1980 to 7.1 percent in July, the actual damage to the economy was marginal and followed trends across the United States at the time. When observing data from 1979 to 1985 on the Miami labor market and comparing it with similar data from several other major cities across the United States, focusing on wages, the effects of the boatlift were marginal. There have been several explanations offered for the findings by

David Card David Edward Card (born 1956) is a Canadian-American labour economist and the Class of 1950 Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has been since 1997. He was awarded half of the 2021 Nobel Memorial Prize in ...

. According to economist Ethan Lewis, the Miami labor market had already seen an increase in "unskilled intensive manufactured goods," allowing it to offset the impact of the Cuban migrants. Miami also increased its diversity in manufacturing industries at a negligible rate compared to other US cities following the boat lift. According to data from the Annual Surveys of Manufacturers, Miami's Manufacturing industries regressed only .01 percentage points post-1980, which indicates a minimal impact from the boat lift on the labor market. Miami also experienced a limited increased in skilled laborers after the boat lift. According to data from Lewis, Miami experienced limited change in workers who were literate in computer use, factoring out to a .010 percentage change in skilled laborers than in Card's research. The wages for

White American White Americans (sometimes also called Caucasian Americans) are Americans who identify as white people. In a more official sense, the United States Census Bureau, which collects demographic data on Americans, defines "white" as " person having ...

s remained steady in both Miami and comparable cities. The wage rates for

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

s were relatively steady from 1979 to 1985 when in comparable cities it dropped. Apart from a dip in 1983, wage rates for non-Cuban

Hispanics The term Hispanic () are people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an ethnic or meta-ethnic term. The term commonly appli ...

were stable, while in comparable cities it fell approximately 6 percent. There is no evidence of a negative effect on wage rates for other groups of Hispanics in Miami. Wages for Cubans demonstrated a steady decline especially compared with other groups in Miami at the time. This can be attributed exclusively to the "dilution" of the group with the new, less-experienced, and lower-earning Mariel immigrants, meaning that there is also no evidence of a negative effect on wage rates for Cubans living in Miami prior to 1980. The Refugee Education Assistance Act of 1980 provided $100 million in cash and medical and social services and authorized approximately $5 million per year to facilitate the refugees' transition to American life. The

1980 Census The 1980 United States census, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 226,545,805, an increase of 11.4% over the 203,184,772 persons enumerated during the 1970 census. It was the first ce ...

was also adjusted to include Mariel children to ensure that additional assistance would be available to them through the

Miami-Dade County Public Schools Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) is the public school district serving Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in the U.S. state of Florida. Founded in 1885, it is the largest school district in Florida, the largest in the South ...

via Title I of the

Elementary and Secondary Education Act The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was passed by the 89th United States Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on April 11, 1965. Part of Johnson's "War on Poverty", the act has been one of the most far-rea ...

(ESEA).

2016 reappraisal

In 2016 Harvard economist George J. Borjas revisited David Card's analysis in light of new insights into immigration effects since 1990. He used the same

current population survey The Current Population Survey (CPS) is a monthly survey of about 60,000 U.S. households conducted by the United States Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS uses the data to publish reports early each month called the Em ...

(CPS) data. However, he focused only on workers who were * non-Hispanic (as the best approximation to the native-born) * aged 25–59 (prime working age) * male * high-school dropouts The last characteristic was especially important since 60 percent of Marielitos did not complete high school. And even many of the remaining 40 percent who had completed high school were looking for unskilled jobs because of their lack of linguistic and other skills. Marielitos, therefore, competed directly with high-school dropouts. Borjas next compared the inflation-adjusted wages of Miami residents who had those characteristics with wages of the same segment of the American population in all other American metropolitan areas except Miami. His analysis shows that the Miami wages for native-born men without high-school diplomas were much lower than the wages for similar workers in other US metropolitan areas during the 1980s and then again in the late 1990s, following the two spikes of Cubans migrating to Miami. One of his conclusions was that during the 1980s, wages in Miami were a full 20 percent lower than they were elsewhere.The Wage Impact of the Marielitos: A Reappraisal
, George J. Borjas,

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, July 2016 In 2017, an analysis of Borjas' study on the effects of the boatlift concluded that Borjas' findings "may simply be spurious" and that his theory of the economic impact of the boatlift "doesn't fit the evidence." A number of other studies concluded the opposite of what Borjas' study had found. Writing for the IZA Institute of Labor Economics, the two economists

Michael Clemens Michael Andrew Clemens (born 1972) is an American economist who studies international migration and global economic development. He is a full professor in the Department of Economics at George Mason University and a non-resident senior fellow ...

and Jennifer Hunt have claimed that conflicting results could be explained by the changes in the subsample composition of the CPS data. In 1980, the share of non-Hispanic blacks doubled in the subgroup of Miami male prime working-age high-school dropouts studied by Borjas. No similar increases occurred in the subgroups of populations in the control cities identified by either Card or Borjas. Since there was a large and significant difference between wages of black and nonblack high-school dropouts, the changing composition of the CSP subgroups created a spurious decline in the wages of the native population. According to Clemens and Hunt, the compositional effect accounts for the entire impact of the Mariel boatlift on the wages of native workers estimated by Borjas.

Effect on political attitudes

stated that those leaving in the Mariel boatlift were undesirable members of Cuban society. With Castro's condemnation and reports that prisoners and mental health patients were leaving in the exodus it was believed by some that Marielitos were undesirable deviants. Opponents of then U.S. President Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party would hail the Mariel boatlift as a failure of his administration.

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

would instead praise Marielitos in his ideological campaign against Cuba. The boatlift would also help spark policy demands for English-only government paperwork after Miami Dade County residents voted to remove Spanish as a second official language in November 1980. U.S. President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

's senior policy adviser Stephen Miller used the boatlift as evidence of the dangers of unchecked immigration. Initially, many Americans disapproved of the boatlift. According to a June 1980 poll conducted by

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

and the ''New York Times'', 71% of Americans disapproved of the boatlift and allowing Cuban nationals to settle in the United States.

In popular culture

The boatlift has been the subject of a number of works of art, media, and entertainment. Examples include: * '' Against Wind and Tide: A Cuban Odyssey'' (1981), a

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

documentary film nominated for the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

for Best Documentary Feature * '' Scarface'' (1983), a dramatic film about a Marielito who becomes a

drug lord A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin, or lord of drugs is a type of crime boss in charge of a drug trafficking network, organization, or enterprise. Crime barons may be difficult to bring to justice: usually, they do not possess illegal goods. Ra ...

. The film uses footage of the El Mariel coming to Miami. * ''The Perez Family'', a novel by Christine Bell; a group of Marielitos who share the same last name pretend to be a family * '' The Perez Family'' (1995), a film based on the novel * '' Before Night Falls'' (1992; English translation 1993), the autobiography of Marielito Reinaldo Arenas * '' Before Night Falls'' (2000), a film based on the book * '' 90 Miles'' (2001), an American documentary film and memoir, written and directed by Marielito Juan Carlos Zaldívar * ''Finding Mañana: A Memoir of a Cuban Exodus'' (2005), a memoir by Mirta Ojito * ''Voices from Mariel'' (2011), a documentary film that tells the story of ten families * ''Voices from Mariel: Oral Histories of the 1980 Cuban Boatlift'' * ''White Lies,'' Season 2 (2023) The events at the Peruvian embassy are depicted in: * ''Todos se van'' (''Everyone's Leaving''; 2006 in Spanish; 2013 in English), a novel by Wendy Guerra * ''Cuerpos al borde de una isla; mi salida de Cuba por Mariel'' (2010), a memoir by Reinaldo García Ramos about his experiences during the Boatlift The Marielitos and the boatlift also featured in the

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

series ''Griselda'' portraying Griselda Blanco's life in Miami where she employed them.

Notable Marielitos

Notable Mariel boatlift refugees include: * Carlos Alfonzo, a painter and sculptor * Reinaldo Arenas, poet and novelist *

Ignacio Berroa Ignacio Berroa (born July 8, 1953, in Havana, Cuba) is a jazz drummer. In 1980 Berroa left his country during the Mariel Boatlift, moved to New York and joined Dizzy Gillespie’s quartet in 1981, becoming the drummer of the band Gillespie formed ...

, jazz drummer * Elizabeth Caballero, opera singer * Hugo Cancio, businessman, CEO of Fuego Enterprises, publisher of the magazine ''OnCuba'' * Felix Delgado, rapper and songwriter known as

Cuban Link Felix Delgado (born December 18, 1974), better known by his stage name Cuban Link, is a Cuban-American rapper. Emerging from the underground hip hop scene in the Bronx, he came to prominence upon discovery by fellow Bronx rapper Fat Joe and m ...

* Olga María Rodríguez Farinas, widow of

William Alexander Morgan William Alexander Morgan (April 19, 1928 – March 11, 1961) was an American-born Cuban guerrilla commander who fought in the Cuban Revolution, leading a band of rebels that drove the Cuban army from key positions in the central mountains as par ...

, a leader of rebel forces in the Cuban Revolution * Luis Felipe, convicted murderer and founder of the New York branch of the

Latin Kings The Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation (ALKQN, ALKN, or LKN, also known as simply Latin Kings) is a gang active primarily in the United States. The gang was founded by Puerto Ricans in Chicago, Illinois, in 1954. The Latin Kings are one of t ...

gang * Bárbaro Garbey, baseball player and coach * Julio González, arsonist and mass-murderer * Francisco del Junco, serial killer * Rene Lavan, actor and soap opera star * Mailet Lopez, founder of I Had Cancer, a social networking site * Pedro Medina, executed for murder * Jesus Mezquia, murderer of Mia Zapata * Mirta Ojito, writer and

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

winner * Ras Juan Perez, founder of the Cuban reggae band Arawak Jah * Orlando "Puntilla" Ríos, folkloric percussionist and vocalist * Felipe García Villamil, Palo Monte priest, drummer, and artist * Manuel Machado Alvarez, murderer *

Pedro Zamora Pedro Pablo Zamora (born Pedro Pablo Zamora y Díaz, February 29, 1972 – November 11, 1994) was a Cuban-American AIDS educator and television personality.''Pedro Zamora'', WPBT Channel 2-New Florida, November 11–17, 2004, Oscar Lopez Produc ...

, who appeared on the television show '' The Real World''

References

*
Mariel Boatlift
on globalsecurity.org.

External links

Six-year study
of Mariel refugees
Fleeing Cuba for a Better Life in USA
*
Voices from Mariel: Oral Histories of the 1980 Cuban Boatlift
', UPF, February 2018 {{Authority control 1980 in Cuba 1980 in Florida 1980 in the United States Cuba–United States relations Cuban emigrants Cuban-American culture in Florida Cuban-American history Cuban refugees Haitian-American history History of immigration to the United States History of Key West, Florida