Prior to the boatlift, Cuban refugees were generally regarded as an asset in the Cold War and as a model community in the United States. Starting in 1959, growing numbers of Cubans made their way to the United States, as many became disillusioned with Fidel Castro and the revolution. Because Cubans were fleeing communism, the U.S. government allowed them unprecedented access to the country. Government agencies, with the help of media outlets throughout the nation, fostered the image of these early refugees as respectable, middle-class people fleeing communism and embracing the U.S. as a place of temporary refuge. This was followed by new waves of migration to the United States, shaped by the evolving U.S. relationship with Cuba and economically supported by the federal Cuban Refugee Program of 1961.
But in 1980, Castro initiated a new migratory crisis of unprecedented intensity. Faced with an ailing economy and thousands of Cubans seeking asylum at the Peruvian embassy in Havana, Castro declared that anyone who wished to leave the country could exit through the port of Mariel. In response, Cuban Americans bought, chartered, or borrowed a fleet of vessels to bring their friends and family members to the United States. Between April and October of 1980, over 125,000 Cubans entered the country.
Among many other things, the boatlift provided Castro’s government a chance to rid the country of people who leaders of the revolution viewed as “undesirables.” Those seeking to leave the island were not portrayed as regular people disaffected by the status quo, but as escoria, or scum, who sought to undermine the revolution and harm Cuban society. The Cuban government made many of these asylum seekers, who became known as the Marielitos, sign documents falsely confessing to “social deviancy” and to crimes against the state.
To further this media-driven narrative, the Cuban government added convicted criminals to the population of the boatlift. While some 26,000 Marielitos had criminal records, many had been convicted of lesser offenses or acts which would not have been considered criminal in the United States. This population included, for example, LGBTQ Cubans who had been vulnerable to prosecution by homophobic policies and laws. In addition, the Cuban government also expelled patients from mental-health facilities, and people with intellectual disabilities.