More Cubans are fleeing their island nation before their relations with the United States are completely normalized.

According to the head of a Catholic group that helps newly arrived refugees in the United States, Cubans fear that the thawing of relations will terminate the special immigration privileges that Cuban immigrants have enjoyed for five decades.

"They're coming for the reasons they've always come, political repression and economic hardship," said William Canny, head of Migration and Refugee Services for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "But they're coming now in greater numbers because there is the perception in Cuba that diplomacy will lead to the normalization of relations with the United States and the end of the Cuban Adjustment Act."

The 1966 federal law carries out the "wet-foot, dry-foot" policy, which means that any Cuban who arrives on United States soil with a "dry foot" is permitted to reside in the country. "Wet foot" Cubans who are caught traveling the dangerous sea route to Florida are sent back to their home countries.

Canny said those who are traveling to the American shore via rafts and boats are people in good health and don't see a bright future in their homeland. Almost always, these people already have contacts and relatives in the United States.

Surge of Cuban Migrants

The federal U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services doesn't have statistics detailing the exact number of fresh Cuban arrivals. Last month, however, it was reported that there's an increasing volume of Cubans enduring the dangers of the Florida Straits to reach the United States.

Statistics indicated that in the last three months of 2015, 1,536 Cubans took sail, but the majority of them were stopped by authorities and sent back to their homeland. In the whole fiscal year of 2015, which ended on Sept. 30, 4,473 Cubans tried to cross the sea.

In this year's first five days, 176 Cubans attempted to complete the trip during a season when the winter weather deters immigrants from traveling via the seas.

Panama, meanwhile, is flying around 500 stranded Cuban migrants to Mexico. A Foreign Ministry statement released on Monday said that migrants will be flown to Ciudad Juarez on the U.S.-Mexico border. Afterwards, they are expected to be let into the United States.

Panama's air transport is part of an agreement finalized in December by Central American countries. The deal allows the humanitarian transfer of more than 8,000 stranded Cuban migrants on their way to the United States.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will head to Cuba on March 21. The visit makes him the first American president to set foot in Havana in nearly 90 years.