April 1980: Castro and Carter
On April 20, 1980, Fidel Castro publicly announced that any Cubans who wished to leave Cuba for the United States could do so at the port of Mariel, west of Havana, Cuba. They only needed someone willing to pick them up. Cuban exiles in the United States responded by sending boats.
The Cuban economy was struggling, causing both job and housing shortages. Throughout April, Cubans were crowding into embassies of other countries, requesting political asylum. Spain and Costa Rica each agreed to accept a small number of refugees.
The Mariel boatlift addressed these issues by reducing the population of Cuba. In the late 1970s, U.S. President Jimmy Carter had begun the process of re-establishing contact with Cuba. Travel to Cuba was once again allowed, and Cuban-Americans could send money to emigrating family members in Cuba.
The Carter administration had an open-door immigration policy for Cubans; they could immigrate to the U.S. with ease if they could leave Cuba and were treated as refugees. With the Mariel boatlift, a much larger number of Cubans entered the U.S. Some 1,700 boats left Cuba, containing a total of 125,000 individuals. While the journey was short, the boats were frequently overloaded, and 27 migrants died on the journey to the United States.
While many of the Cuban exiles who fled to the United States had family to sponsor them and transitioned relatively easily to life in the United States, refugee camps were established for others. The United States learned that some of those in the Mariel boat lift had been released from prison or from mental institutions, and others lacked sponsors in the United States. Some 1,700 of the 125,000 were jailed when they reached the United States and nearly 600 were detained while a sponsor was found for them.
The Mariel boatlift continued until October 31, 1980, when Castro again closed the borders, eliminating the easy ability to Cubans to flee to the U.S. Normal immigration was suspended for several years, and continued to be erratic for a number of years thereafter.