The Mexican government announced on Jan. 13 it intends to grant 20-day transit visas to 180 Cubans migrants selected from a pool of 8,000 individuals stranded in Costa Rica since November.

Mexico's National Migration Institute stated the Cubans will have to leave Mexico after their permits expire, Reuters reports. The migrants, who flew into Mexico from Costa Rica on Jan. 12, are trying to make their way to the U.S. where the current "Wet foot, dry foot" policy offers them amnesty.

As previously reported, foreign ministers from various Latin American countries met in Guatemala City in December in an effort to find a solution to the Cuban migrant crisis. Granting the migrants temporary visas is the first step in helping the Cubans reach the U.S.

The heavy increase of Cuban migrants coming through Latin America is due to the current thaw in political relations between the U.S. and the communist country. As relations between the two nations normalize, Cuban migrants fear that the preferential treatment they have enjoyed upon entering the U.S. will soon come to an end.

As previously reported, presidential hopeful Marco Rubio recently introduced a bill in the Senate, which would remove special benefits from Cuban Immigrants in the U.S.

"It is outrageous whenever the American people's generosity is exploited," said the Florida senator, adding, "It is particularly outrageous when individuals who claim to be fleeing repression in Cuba are welcomed and allowed to collect federal assistance based on their plight, only to return often to the very place they claimed to be fleeing."

Cuba has argued the current amnesty policy not only encourages Cubans to risk dangerous migratory voyages to reach the U.S. but also takes away many of the nation's and most productive citizens.

As reported in Wall Street Journal, Costa Rica’s foreign minister, Manuel González, called the fist trip the Cuban migrants made to Mexico a successful one. “We expect it to become a more stable mechanism,” said González.

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