Cuban Migration in Numbers

The numbers on Cuban migration come from different offices that count different things. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) records encounters at the border and at ports of entry; the Coast Guard (USCG), people interdicted at sea; the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), permanent residences granted; the Census Bureau, how many Cuban-born people live in the country at a given moment. None of these series is the same as "arrivals," and they should not be added together. Unless otherwise noted, years are federal fiscal years, which run from October 1 to September 30.

The major waves

Period	People	Range	Note
Early exile (1959-1962)	248,070	248,070-250,000	Departures to the United States between January 1, 1959 and the missile crisis (October 22, 1962). 248,070 according to Duany (Cuban Research Institute, FIU) and the Heritage Foundation (1980); FIU's Institute for Cuban Studies rounds it to 248,100. Grenier (FIU) speaks of about 250,000 between 1959 and 1964. These are departures, not permanent residence grants in those years.
Operation Pedro Pan (unaccompanied children) (1960-1962)	14,048	13,000-15,000	Unaccompanied minors who reached Miami from December 26, 1960 to October 22 or 23, 1962, depending on the source, under the sponsorship of the Catholic Welfare Bureau. 14,048 according to Operation Pedro Pan Group and Yvonne M. Conde's book; "over 14,000" according to Operation Pedro Pan Group and "14,000" according to the University of Miami; "between 13,000 and 15,000" according to the Heritage Foundation (1980). They are included in the early exile row.
Camarioca (1965)	~5,000	3,000-5,000	Boat departures from the port of Camarioca in October and November 1965. "Nearly 5,000" according to the University of Miami; "between 3,000 and 5,000" according to The Christian Science Monitor (1980). The State Department (FRUS) gives no total: more than 700 by October 18 and some 2,000 stranded people evacuated by sea between November 13 and 24.
Freedom Flights (1965-1973)	260,737	260,561-297,318	Airlift from December 1, 1965 to April 6, 1973. 260,737 according to State Department Research Memorandum No. 1230 (1980), cited in FRUS; 260,561 according to Duany (FIU); "some 265,000" according to The Christian Science Monitor (1980) and "nearly 270,000" according to the University of Miami. The Heritage Foundation (1980) gives 297,318, an outlier that may count something different.
Mariel exodus (1980)	124,776	124,000-125,266	Arrivals by sea from the port of Mariel between April and September 1980. 124,776 according to the Coast Guard ("Mariel Boatlift" page), which on another page speaks of about 124,000; about 125,000 according to CRS; 125,266 according to the Miami Herald (2005). Start and end dates vary by source.
Rafter crisis (1994)	~33,000	30,224-38,560	The figure depends on the period. About 33,000 Cubans picked up at sea and taken to Guantanamo in 1994, including 8,763 later moved to Panama (GAO, 1995). 30,224 interdicted during Operation Able Vigil, August 19 to September 23, 1994 (Coast Guard fact sheet reproduced by GlobalSecurity). 37,191 in calendar year 1994 and 38,560 in fiscal year 1994 (Coast Guard).
Wet foot, dry foot (estimate) (1995-2016)	~715,655		There is no single count of arrivals for this period. The figure is the sum of Cuban-born people who obtained permanent residence in fiscal years 1995 to 2016 (permanent resident series on this page), which includes people who arrived before 1995 and excludes those who arrived in 2016 and adjusted later. Another partial measure: 142,337 Cubans without visas arrived by land or at ports of entry in fiscal years 2013-2016, according to CBP data compiled by CRS.
The great exodus (2021-2023)	424,894	363,260-642,509	CBP encounters with Cubans in fiscal years 2022 and 2023 (October 2021 to September 2023): 224,607 and 200,287. The low counts only the southwest border (363,260) and the high adds fiscal year 2024 (642,509 over three years; CRS cites an annual average of 214,170). These are encounters, not people, and from 2023 they include airport arrivals that overlap with CHNV parole.
CHNV humanitarian parole (2023-2024)	110,240		Cubans who arrived and were paroled under the process for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans (CHNV) from January 2023 through the end of December 2024, according to CBP; 110,970 had been authorized to travel (those who arrived are part of that group). The termination notice DHS published in the Federal Register on March 25, 2025 says about 532,000 people of the four nationalities received travel authorization through January 22, 2025, with no breakdown by country. It partly overlaps with the previous row.

Each row measures something different (departures, arrivals, interdictions, encounters or residence grants) and the rows should not be added up. "y" is the main figure; "low" and "high" are the minimum and maximum given by serious sources for the same episode. The Pedro Pan figures are part of the early exile, and the CHNV figures overlap with the 2021-2023 exodus. Source: Jorge Duany, "The Cuban Exodus: Growing Complexity & Diversity," Cuban Research Institute, Florida International University, slide 4; FIU Institute for Cuban Studies, "Brief History of Cuban Migration"; Guillermo Grenier, "The Establishment of the Cuban American Community," Cuban Research Institute, FIU, 2007; Heritage Foundation, Backgrounder No. 124, "The Cuban Refugee Problem in Perspective, 1959-1980," July 18, 1980; Operation Pedro Pan Group, "History"; University of Miami Libraries, "Operation Pedro Pan Collections Guide"; University of Miami Libraries, "In Search of Freedom" exhibit, "Exodus from Cuba"; Stephen Webbe, "Flight from Cuba," The Christian Science Monitor, May 8, 1980; U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, vol. XXXII, document 308 (editorial note); U.S. Coast Guard, "Mariel Boatlift," Alien Migrant Interdiction Office (archived November 3, 2008); U.S. Coast Guard, "Alien Migrant Interdiction" (archived January 23, 2009); Congressional Research Service, "Cuban Migration to the United States: Policy and Trends," R40566, June 2, 2009; Oscar Corral and Andrés Viglucci, "Mariel: From turmoil to triumph," Miami Herald, April 3, 2005 (copy at latinamericanstudies.org); U.S. General Accounting Office, "Cuba: U.S. Response to the 1994 Cuban Migration Crisis," NSIAD-95-211, September 18, 1995; GlobalSecurity.org, "Operation Able Vigil" (reproduces the Coast Guard fact sheet); U.S. Coast Guard, "Total Interdictions - Fiscal Year 1982 to Present," current as of January 19, 2016 (archived April 7, 2016); Congressional Research Service, "Cuba: U.S. Policy in the 115th Congress," R44822, November 22, 2017, table 1 (CBP data); U.S. Customs and Border Protection, "Nationwide Encounters" (data page); Congressional Research Service, "Cuba: U.S. Policy Overview," IF10045, updated January 8, 2025; U.S. Customs and Border Protection, "CBP Releases December 2024 Monthly Update," January 14, 2025; DHS, "Termination of Parole Processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans," 90 Fed. Reg. 13611, March 25, 2025.

The table gives the most cited figure for each wave and the range where sources disagree. Between January 1, 1959 and the missile crisis of October 1962, 248,070 Cubans left for the United States¹, including more than 14,000 unaccompanied children in Operation Pedro Pan². The Freedom Flights brought 260,737 people between December 1965 and April 1973, according to a State Department memorandum³. Mariel brought 124,776, according to the Coast Guard⁴. For 1994 the figure depends on the period: about 33,000 rafters were picked up at sea and taken to Guantánamo, according to the General Accounting Office (GAO)⁵, and the Coast Guard interdicted 38,560 Cubans over the whole fiscal year⁶. The 1995-2016 row does not count arrivals but permanent residences, because no single count of entries exists for those years.

Cuban-born people living in the United States

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Year	People	Note
1960	79,150	1960 census (April), early in the exile.
1970	439,048	1970 census.
1980	607,814	1980 census (April), before Mariel.
1990	736,971	1990 census.
2000	872,716	2000 census.
2010	1,104,679	ACS 2010, 1-year. Margin of error: plus or minus 27,222.
2020	1,314,570	ACS 2016-2020, 5-year. Margin of error: plus or minus 14,699.
2025	1,799,047	ACS 2025, 1-year. Margin of error: plus or minus 39,246.

U.S. residents born in Cuba, regardless of citizenship or immigration status. 1960-2000: decennial censuses (long form, sample data), compiled by Gibson and Jung. Since 2010 the census no longer asks place of birth and the figure comes from the American Community Survey (ACS), a sample survey with a margin of error: 2010 is the 1-year estimate; 2020 is the 5-year estimate (2016-2020), which averages that period; 2025 is the latest published 1-year estimate. Before 1960 the Cuban-born population was small: 18,493 in the 1930 census (table 4 of the same report). Intermediate 1-year estimates: 1,359,990 in 2019, 1,278,627 in 2021, 1,312,510 in 2022, 1,450,808 in 2023 and 1,688,798 in 2024. Source: Campbell Gibson and Kay Jung, "Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-Born Population of the United States: 1850 to 2000," U.S. Census Bureau, Working Paper No. 81, February 2006, tables 3 and 4; U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2010 1-year, table B05006; U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2016-2020 5-year, table B05006; U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2025 1-year, table B05006 (summary file).

The 1960 census counted 79,150 Cuban-born residents and the 1970 census 439,048: in one decade the exile multiplied the community more than fivefold, from 18,493 people in 1930⁷. Since 2010 the figure has come from the American Community Survey (ACS), which replaced the long-form census questionnaire and is a sample with a margin of error. The 2025 ACS estimates 1,799,047 Cuban-born people, with a margin of error of plus or minus 39,246; in 2022 there were 1,312,510⁸. The 2020 point is the five-year estimate (2016-2020), which averages that period.

Population of Cuban origin

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Year	People	Note
2000	1,241,685	2000 census.
2010	1,785,547	2010 census.
2020	2,332,584	ACS 2016-2020, 5-year. Margin of error: plus or minus 19,643.
2025	3,082,802	ACS 2025, 1-year. Margin of error: plus or minus 55,590.

People who report Cuban Hispanic origin, whether born in Cuba, the United States or elsewhere. It is a self-identification answer. 2000 and 2010: decennial censuses (full count). 2020: ACS 5-year estimate (2016-2020), because the 2020 census detail by origin could not be downloaded for this page. 2025: ACS 1-year estimate. Census and ACS figures are not fully comparable: the 2010 ACS gave 1,873,585, against 1,785,547 in that year's census. The 2024 ACS estimated 2,948,426. Source: Sharon R. Ennis, Merarys Ríos-Vargas and Nora G. Albert, "The Hispanic Population: 2010," 2010 Census Briefs C2010BR-04, May 2011, table 1; U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2016-2020 5-year, table B03001; U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2025 1-year, table B03001 (summary file).

This series adds up people born in the United States or in other countries who identify as being of Cuban origin. The census recorded 1,241,685 people in 2000 and 1,785,547 in 2010⁹; the 2025 ACS estimates 3,082,802¹⁰. Cubans are the third-largest Hispanic origin group, after Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, according to the Pew Research Center¹¹. Census and ACS figures are not fully comparable, and the 2020 figure is again the five-year estimate.

Permanent residences by decade

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Fiscal years	People	Note
1920-1929	12,769
1930-1939	10,641
1940-1949	25,976
1950-1959	73,221
1960-1969	202,030
1970-1979	256,497
1980-1989	132,552
1990-1999	159,037
2000-2009	271,742
2010-2019	479,818
2020-2024	~327,272	Five years only: 15,609 (2020), 22,494 (2021) and 31,019 (2022) from the 2022 yearbook, and 77,870 (2023) and 180,280 (2024) from the 2024 yearbook, rounded to the nearest ten.

Table 2 of the DHS immigration yearbook, which groups data by decade since 1820. It measures country of last residence, not country of birth, so it does not match the annual series by birth. It counts residence grants, not arrivals: in the 1960s and 1970s many Cubans entered on temporary parole and became permanent residents years later under the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966. Through 1976 the fiscal year ended on June 30; since 1977, on September 30. The table gives no separate figure for Cuba for 1900-1919. Source: DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics, "Lawful Permanent Residents," fiscal year 2022 yearbook tables 2, 3d and 7d (Excel); DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics, "Lawful Permanent Residents," fiscal year 2024 yearbook tables 2, 3 and 7 (Excel).

DHS's longest series groups permanent residences by decade according to country of last residence¹². In the 1960s, 202,030 people living in Cuba received a green card, and in the 1970s, 256,497. Many had entered with a temporary permit (parole) and adjusted their status years later: the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) places the parole of Cubans between January 1959 and March 1980, and the start of adjustments in 1967¹³. The five years from 2020 to 2024 add up to about 327,000 residences, more than any full decade before 2010.

Permanent residences by year

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Fiscal year	People	Note
1986	33,114	Source: INS 1996, table 3.
1987	28,916	Source: INS 1996, table 3.
1988	17,558	Source: INS 1996, table 3.
1989	10,046	Source: yearbook 2004.
1990	10,645	Source: yearbook 2004.
1991	10,349	Source: yearbook 2004.
1992	11,791	Source: yearbook 2004.
1993	13,666	Source: yearbook 2004.
1994	14,727	Source: yearbook 2004.
1995	17,937	Source: yearbook 2004.
1996	26,438	Source: yearbook 2005. Revised figure; previously 26,466 in the 2004 yearbook.
1997	33,524	Source: yearbook 2006. Revised figure; previously 33,587 in the 2004 yearbook.
1998	17,304	Source: yearbook 2007. Revised figure; previously 17,375 in the 2004 yearbook.
1999	14,019	Source: yearbook 2008. Revised figure; previously 14,132 in the 2004 yearbook.
2000	18,960	Source: yearbook 2009. Revised figure; previously 20,831 in the 2004 yearbook.
2001	27,453	Source: yearbook 2010. Revised figure; previously 27,703 in the 2004 yearbook.
2002	28,182	Source: yearbook 2011. Revised figure; previously 28,272 in the 2004 yearbook.
2003	9,262	Source: yearbook 2011. Revised figure; previously 9,304 in the 2004 yearbook.
2004	20,488	Source: yearbook 2013.
2005	36,261	Source: yearbook 2013.
2006	45,614	Source: yearbook 2013.
2007	29,104	Source: yearbook 2013.
2008	49,500	Source: yearbook 2013.
2009	38,954	Source: yearbook 2013.
2010	33,573	Source: yearbook 2013.
2011	36,452	Source: yearbook 2013.
2012	32,820	Source: yearbook 2013.
2013	32,219	Source: yearbook 2022.
2014	46,679	Source: yearbook 2022.
2015	54,396	Source: yearbook 2022.
2016	66,516	Source: yearbook 2022.
2017	65,028	Source: yearbook 2022.
2018	76,486	Source: yearbook 2022.
2019	41,641	Source: yearbook 2022.
2020	16,367	Source: yearbook 2022.
2021	23,077	Source: yearbook 2022.
2022	36,642	Source: yearbook 2022.
2023	~81,600	Source: yearbook 2024. Rounded to the nearest ten by DHS.
2024	~184,040	Source: yearbook 2024. Rounded to the nearest ten by DHS.

People born in Cuba who obtained lawful permanent residence (a green card) in each fiscal year (October to September), by any route: the Cuban Adjustment Act, family, migration-accord visas, the diversity lottery, asylum and others. Most were already living in the United States and adjusted status: the year of residence is not the year of arrival. Table 3 of the Yearbook of Immigration Statistics; for each year the most recent edition giving an unrounded figure is used. Through 2004 the INS counted "immigrants admitted" and in 2005 it revised some earlier figures. Since the 2023 data DHS rounds every cell to the nearest ten. Before 1986 there is no annual series by country of birth in the online tables; see the series by decade. Source: Immigration and Naturalization Service, "1996 Statistical Yearbook of the Immigration and Naturalization Service," tables 3 and 31; DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics, "Yearbook of Immigration Statistics" (index of yearbooks 1996-2024); DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics, "2004 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics" (tables page); DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics, "2013 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics" (tables page); DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics, "Lawful Permanent Residents," fiscal year 2022 yearbook tables 2, 3d and 7d (Excel); DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics, "Lawful Permanent Residents," fiscal year 2024 yearbook tables 2, 3 and 7 (Excel).

By country of birth, an annual series exists from 1986¹⁴. Fiscal year 2024 was a record: 184,040 Cuban-born people obtained permanent residence, more than double the 81,600 of 2023, which in turn exceeded the previous high of 76,486 in 2018¹⁵. Most were already living in the country, so the year of residence is not the year of arrival. Until 2004 the INS spoke of "immigrants admitted" and later revised some figures; since the 2023 data, DHS rounds to the nearest ten.

The Cuban Adjustment Act, by period

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Fiscal years	People	Note
1967-1970	135,947	INS, table 31: "1961-70" column; the act was signed on November 2, 1966.
1971-1980	252,119	INS, table 31.
1981-1990	105,898	INS, table 31.
1991-1996	55,853	INS, table 31. Six years only.
1997-2006	200,682	Sum of the annual series (CU6 and CU7).
2007-2016	357,437	Sum of the annual series (CU6 and CU7).
2017-2024	~421,895	Sum of the annual series; eight years; 2023 and 2024 rounded to the nearest ten.

1967-1996: table 31 of the 1996 INS yearbook ("Refugees and asylees granted lawful permanent resident status by enactment"), row "Cuban Refugee Act of 11/2/66", which totals 549,817 through fiscal year 1996. 1997-2024: our own sum of the annual series for classes CU6 and CU7. The cumulative total for 1967-2024 is about 1.53 million; it is a calculation joining two sources and should be read as approximate. Through 1976 the fiscal year ended on June 30; since 1977, on September 30. Source: Immigration and Naturalization Service, "1996 Statistical Yearbook of the Immigration and Naturalization Service," tables 3 and 31; DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics, "Lawful Permanent Residents," fiscal year 2024 yearbook tables 2, 3 and 7 (Excel).

The Cuban Adjustment Act has its own admission classes: CU6 for Cubans and CU7 for the non-Cuban spouse or child. The 1996 INS yearbook adds up 549,817 adjustments from the law's entry into force through fiscal year 1996, with the peak in the 1970s: 252,119¹³. Adding the later yearbooks, the total through 2024 comes to about 1.53 million; this is our own calculation combining two sources and should be read as approximate.

The Cuban Adjustment Act, year by year

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Fiscal year	People	Note
1996	20,131	CU6: 19,602; CU7: 529.
1997	27,967	CU6: 27,349; CU7: 618.
1998	13,182	CU6: 12,570; CU7: 612.
1999	6,256	CU6: 5,687; CU7: 569.
2000	13,346	CU6: 12,424; CU7: 922.
2001	21,207	CU6: 20,411; CU7: 796.
2002	22,374	CU6: 21,108; CU7: 1,266.
2003	7,664	CU6: 6,119; CU7: 1,545.
2004	15,798	CU6: 14,515; CU7: 1,283.
2005	31,924	CU6: 29,599; CU7: 2,325.
2006	40,964	CU6: 36,532; CU7: 4,432.
2007	23,349	CU6: 20,624; CU7: 2,725.
2008	42,756	CU6: 39,452; CU7: 3,304.
2009	33,523	CU6: 28,770; CU7: 4,753.
2010	28,557	CU6: 25,891; CU7: 2,666.
2011	31,321	CU6: 28,138; CU7: 3,183.
2012	26,463	CU6: 23,954; CU7: 2,509.
2013	27,404	CU6: 24,632; CU7: 2,772.
2014	40,043	CU6: 37,814; CU7: 2,229.
2015	46,351	CU6: 43,344; CU7: 3,007.
2016	57,670	CU6: 54,502; CU7: 3,168.
2017	57,154	CU6: 53,998; CU7: 3,156.
2018	73,189	CU6: 69,459; CU7: 3,730.
2019	36,602	CU6: 32,867; CU7: 3,735.
2020	14,233	CU6: 12,294; CU7: 1,939.
2021	21,465	CU6: 19,448; CU7: 2,017.
2022	15,482	CU6: 13,735; CU7: 1,747.
2023	~43,810	CU6: 41,740; CU7: 2,070. Rounded to the nearest ten by DHS.
2024	~159,960	CU6: 157,370; CU7: 2,590. Rounded to the nearest ten by DHS.

People who obtained permanent residence under the Cuban Adjustment Act classes of admission (Public Law 89-732 of 1966): CU6, Cubans, and CU7, non-Cuban spouses or children of an adjusting Cuban. Fiscal years run October to September. Source: the detailed class-of-admission table in each yearbook (table 5 in INS yearbooks through 2004, table 7 from 2005; 2012 comes from the PDF yearbook; the list of files by year is in the site's research notes). It measures completed cases: it reflects arrivals in earlier years and also USCIS processing capacity. It does not include Cubans who obtained residence by other routes, such as family petitions or migration-accord visas. Since the 2023 data DHS rounds to the nearest ten. Source: Immigration and Naturalization Service, "1996 Statistical Yearbook of the Immigration and Naturalization Service," tables 3 and 31; DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics, "Yearbook of Immigration Statistics" (index of yearbooks 1996-2024); Immigration and Naturalization Service / DHS, statistical yearbook for fiscal year 2012 (PDF); DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics, "Lawful Permanent Residents," fiscal year 2022 yearbook tables 2, 3d and 7d (Excel); DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics, "Lawful Permanent Residents," fiscal year 2023 yearbook table 7 (Excel); DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics, "Lawful Permanent Residents," fiscal year 2024 yearbook tables 2, 3 and 7 (Excel).

The annual series begins in 1996¹⁶. It swings widely: 6,256 adjustments in 1999, 73,189 in 2018 and 14,233 in 2020. In 2024 it reached 159,960, close to 87 percent of all green cards granted that year to Cuban-born people (the comparison is approximate, because the CU7 class includes spouses who were not born on the island). It measures completed applications, not arrivals.

Interdictions at sea

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Fiscal year	People	Note
1982	0
1983	44
1984	7
1985	51
1986	28
1987	46
1988	60
1989	257
1990	443
1991	1,722
1992	2,066
1993	2,882
1994	38,560	Fiscal year October 1993 to September 1994; includes the August-September 1994 rafter crisis. For calendar year 1994 the figure is 37,191.
1995	525
1996	411
1997	421
1998	903
1999	1,619
2000	1,000
2001	777
2002	666
2003	1,555
2004	1,225
2005	2,712
2006	2,810
2007	2,868
2008	2,216
2009	799
2010	422
2011	985
2012	1,275
2013	1,357
2014	2,111	The "Total Interdictions" table gives 2,059; the "Maritime Migrant Interdictions" table of the same date gives 2,111, which matches the revised total of 3,587 the Coast Guard released in 2017.
2015	2,927
2016	5,396	From 2016 on, figures from Coast Guard news releases.
2017	1,468
2018	259
2019	313
2020	49
2021	838
2022	6,182
2023	6,910	Figure cited by CRS in January 2025. The Coast Guard's 2025 news releases give 6,618 people repatriated to Cuba that fiscal year.
2024		No published total of interdictions. The Coast Guard only reported 749 Cubans repatriated (a different category), so it is not plotted.

Cuban nationals interdicted at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), by fiscal year (October to September). It does not include those who reached land without being interdicted, nor the 1980 Mariel exodus, which predates the series. 1982-2015: the Coast Guard's official "Total Interdictions" table, removed from its website in 2017 and consulted in an archived copy. 2016-2022: Coast Guard news releases. 2023: Congressional Research Service (CRS). 2024: people repatriated, per 2025 news releases. The Coast Guard did not publish annual totals for 2025 or 2026 in the releases consulted: on May 20, 2025 it reported 103 people repatriated to Cuba so far in fiscal year 2025. The Coast Guard itself has revised its totals over time. Source: U.S. Coast Guard, "Total Interdictions - Fiscal Year 1982 to Present," current as of January 19, 2016 (archived April 7, 2016); U.S. Coast Guard, "Maritime Migrant Interdictions," current as of January 19, 2016 (archived December 14, 2016); U.S. Coast Guard, "Coast Guard repatriates 55 people to Cuba," October 5, 2022; Congressional Research Service, "Cuba: U.S. Policy Overview," IF10045, updated January 8, 2025; U.S. Coast Guard, "Coast Guard repatriates 16 aliens to Cuba," February 11, 2025; U.S. Coast Guard, "Coast Guard repatriates 5 aliens to Cuba," May 20, 2025.

For years the Coast Guard published a table of Cubans interdicted at sea by fiscal year starting in 1982⁶. The peak is 1994, with 38,560. Between 1995 and 2015 the figure ranged from 411 to 2,927 a year. It rose to 5,396 in 2016 (CRS and Pew give between 5,213 and 5,263 for that year, using a different cutoff; see Wet foot, dry foot) and fell to 49 in 2020¹⁷, after the government ended the "wet foot, dry foot" policy on January 12, 2017¹⁸ (see The End of Wet Foot, Dry Foot). It shot up again in 2022, with 6,182¹⁷, and in 2023, with 6,910¹⁹. For 2024 the Coast Guard reported only 749 people repatriated to Cuba, and the press releases consulted contain no totals for 2025 or 2026²⁰.

Cubans without visas, 2010-2017

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Fiscal year	People	Note
2010	8,170	7,458 at ports of entry and 712 between ports.
2011	8,745	7,786 at ports of entry and 959 between ports.
2012	12,654	12,048 at ports of entry and 606 between ports.
2013	17,984	17,360 at ports of entry and 624 between ports.
2014	24,812	23,751 at ports of entry and 1,061 between ports.
2015	41,272	40,119 at ports of entry and 1,153 between ports.
2016	58,269	56,340 at ports of entry and 1,929 between ports. The text of the same report says 56,178; Pew counts 56,406 at ports of entry only.
2017	~20,604	19,910 at ports of entry and 694 between ports. Incomplete year: data through August 28, 2017. 17,956 before January 12, 2017 and 2,648 after.

CBP figures compiled by the Congressional Research Service (CRS): Cubans without entry documents who presented at a port of entry or were apprehended between ports, by fiscal year (October to September). It covers the last years of the "wet foot, dry foot" policy, when those who arrived by land were usually allowed to stay. The definition differs from the "encounters" CBP has published since 2020 and the two should not be joined into a single series. There is no official public series by nationality for these years outside CBP. Source: Congressional Research Service, "Cuba: U.S. Policy in the 115th Congress," R44822, November 22, 2017, table 1 (CBP data); Jens Manuel Krogstad, Pew Research Center, "Surge in Cuban immigration to U.S. continued through 2016," January 13, 2017.

Before CBP began publishing its encounters by nationality, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) compiled, using CBP data, how many Cubans without visas presented themselves at a port of entry or were apprehended between ports¹⁸. The count went from 8,170 in 2010 to 58,269 in 2016. The 2017 figure runs through August 28. The text of the same report gives 56,178 for 2016, which differs from its table, and the Pew Research Center counted 56,406 at ports of entry alone²¹.

CBP encounters nationwide

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Fiscal year	Encounters	Note
2020	14,015	Includes 4,751 Title 42 expulsions.
2021	39,303	Includes 7,229 Title 42 expulsions.
2022	224,607	218,395 U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions; 220,908 at the southwest border.
2023	200,287	52,729 OFO encounters at ports away from the land borders (mostly airports), the year CHNV parole began.
2024	217,615	203,929 inadmissibles at ports of entry (137,742 at the southwest border and 65,820 away from the land borders) and 13,686 apprehensions.
2025	33,056	31,863 of the 33,056 encounters took place from October 2024 to January 2025; from February 2025 on, fewer than 230 a month.
2026	1,865	Full fiscal year (October 2025 to September 2026), per the October 15, 2026 file.

Sum of U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) apprehensions, Office of Field Operations (OFO) inadmissibles at ports of entry and, from 2020 to 2023, Title 42 expulsions of Cuban citizens at all borders, ports and airports. It counts encounters, not people: someone stopped twice counts twice. The federal fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30 (2022 = October 2021 to September 2022). CBP has published this series by nationality since fiscal year 2020; for earlier years see the 2010-2017 series of Cubans without visas, which is not comparable. From 2023 on, a large share of encounters took place at ports of entry, including airports, in the same years as the humanitarian parole process for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans (CHNV); the file does not allow those beneficiaries to be separated out. Do not add these figures to the CHNV figures. Values for 2023-2026 come from the October 15, 2026 file and for 2020-2022 from the November 7, 2023 file; they match the intermediate files. CBP revises its data and figures may change slightly. Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, "Nationwide Encounters" (data page); U.S. Customs and Border Protection, "FY23 - FY26 Nationwide Encounters by Area of Responsibility" (CSV, October 15, 2026); U.S. Customs and Border Protection, "FY20 - FY23 Nationwide Encounters by Area of Responsibility" (CSV, November 7, 2023); U.S. Customs and Border Protection, "FY22 - FY25 Nationwide Encounters by Area of Responsibility" (CSV, October 15, 2025; cross-check).

Since fiscal year 2020, CBP has published its encounters by nationality²². An encounter is an apprehension, an inadmissibility determination at a port or an expulsion, not a person. With Cubans, they rose from 39,303 in 2021 to 224,607 in 2022, 200,287 in 2023 and 217,615 in 2024. In 2025 they fell to 33,056, almost all between October 2024 and January 2025, and in fiscal year 2026, which closed on September 30, to 1,865²². Since 2023 a growing share has occurred at ports of entry and airports, in the same years in which 110,240 Cubans arrived on humanitarian parole for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans (CHNV)²³. The CBP file does not allow the two to be separated, so these two figures should not be added together. The background is in The Great Exodus.

Encounters on the southwest border

View the data as a table

Fiscal year	Encounters	Note
2020	13,410
2021	38,674
2022	220,908	220,321 by the Border Patrol between ports (215,703 apprehensions and 4,618 Title 42 expulsions) and 587 at ports of entry.
2023	142,352	116,498 by the Border Patrol between ports (112,634 apprehensions and 3,864 Title 42 expulsions) and 25,854 at ports of entry.
2024	150,995	137,742 at ports of entry and 13,253 apprehensions between ports.
2025	31,944	28,702 at ports of entry and 3,242 apprehensions between ports.
2026	1,046

Subset of the nationwide series: only the "Southwest Land Border" region (the land border with Mexico), adding Border Patrol apprehensions between ports, OFO inadmissibles at ports of entry and Title 42 expulsions. It counts encounters, not people. Fiscal years run October to September. Same CBP files as the nationwide series. Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, "Nationwide Encounters" (data page); U.S. Customs and Border Protection, "FY23 - FY26 Nationwide Encounters by Area of Responsibility" (CSV, October 15, 2026); U.S. Customs and Border Protection, "FY20 - FY23 Nationwide Encounters by Area of Responsibility" (CSV, November 7, 2023).

The border with Mexico accounted for 220,908 encounters with Cubans in 2022, 98 percent of the national total, almost all of them Border Patrol apprehensions between ports²². In 2024 the pattern was different: 137,742 of the 150,995 encounters took place at ports of entry. In 2026 there were 1,046.

Notes and sources

1. Heritage Foundation, "The Cuban Refugee Problem in Perspective, 1959-1980," Backgrounder No. 124, July 18, 1980, p. 2, accessed November 11, 2026, https://policyarchive.org/download/8923; the same figure in Jorge Duany, "The Cuban Exodus: Growing Complexity & Diversity," Cuban Research Institute, Florida International University, slide 4. https://cri.fiu.edu/_assets/docs/cuban-exodus.pdf back

2. Operation Pedro Pan Group, "History," accessed November 11, 2026. https://www.pedropan.org/history back

3. Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, vol. XXXII, document 308, editorial note citing Research Memorandum No. 1230 of May 20, 1980, accessed November 11, 2026. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v32/d308 back

4. U.S. Coast Guard, "Mariel Boatlift," Alien Migrant Interdiction Office, archived copy of November 3, 2008, accessed November 11, 2026. https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081103212952/http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg5/cg531/AMIO/mariel.asp back

5. U.S. General Accounting Office, "Cuba: U.S. Response to the 1994 Cuban Migration Crisis," NSIAD-95-211, September 18, 1995, p. 3, accessed November 11, 2026. https://www.gao.gov/assets/nsiad-95-211.pdf back

6. U.S. Coast Guard, "Total Interdictions, Fiscal Year 1982 to Present," data as of January 19, 2016, archived copy of April 7, 2016, accessed November 11, 2026. https://web.archive.org/web/20160407105338/http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg5/cg531/AMIO/FlowStats/FY.asp back back

7. Campbell Gibson and Kay Jung, "Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-Born Population of the United States: 1850 to 2000," U.S. Census Bureau, Working Paper No. 81, February 2006, tables 3 and 4, accessed November 11, 2026. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/working-papers/2006/demo/POP-twps0081.pdf back

8. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 1-year estimates for 2022 and 2025, table B05006, accessed November 11, 2026, https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/summary_file/2025/table-based-SF/data/1YRData/acsdt1y2025-b05006.dat; on the replacement of the long-form questionnaire, ACS dataset description in the Census Bureau API. https://api.census.gov/data/2025/acs/acs1.json back

9. Sharon R. Ennis, Merarys Ríos-Vargas and Nora G. Albert, "The Hispanic Population: 2010," 2010 Census Briefs C2010BR-04, U.S. Census Bureau, May 2011, table 1, accessed November 11, 2026. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2011/dec/c2010br-04.pdf back

10. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 1-year estimate for 2025, table B03001, accessed November 11, 2026. https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/summary_file/2025/table-based-SF/data/1YRData/acsdt1y2025-b03001.dat back

11. Pew Research Center, "10 facts about Cubans in the U.S.," May 7, 2026, accessed November 11, 2026. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/05/07/10-facts-about-cubans-in-the-u-s/ back

12. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Homeland Security Statistics, Yearbook of Immigration Statistics 2022, table 2, and 2024, table 2, accessed November 11, 2026. https://ohss.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2023-12/2023_0818_plcy_yearbook_lawful_permanent_residents_fy2022_0.xlsx back

13. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1996 Statistical Yearbook of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, refugee programs chart (p. 74 of the PDF) and table 31 (p. 94), accessed November 11, 2026. https://ohss.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2023-12/ins_yearbook_immigration_statistics_1996.pdf back back

14. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1996 Statistical Yearbook, table 3, and Department of Homeland Security, Yearbook of Immigration Statistics for 2004 to 2013 and for 2022, table 3, accessed November 11, 2026. https://ohss.dhs.gov/topics/immigration/yearbook back

15. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Homeland Security Statistics, Yearbook of Immigration Statistics 2024, "Lawful Permanent Residents," table 3, accessed November 11, 2026. https://ohss.dhs.gov/system/files/2026-06/2026_0604_ohss_yearbook_lawful_permanent_residents_fy2024.xlsx back

16. INS yearbooks (1996 to 2002) and DHS yearbooks (2003 to 2024), detailed class of admission table (table 5 through 2004 and table 7 from 2005), accessed November 11, 2026. https://ohss.dhs.gov/topics/immigration/yearbook back

17. U.S. Coast Guard, "Coast Guard repatriates 55 people to Cuba," bulletin of October 5, 2022, accessed November 11, 2026. https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSCG/bulletins/3306662 back back

18. Congressional Research Service, "Cuba: U.S. Policy in the 115th Congress," R44822, November 22, 2017, p. 52 and table 1 (p. 55), accessed November 11, 2026. https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/20171122_R44822_513de2af64f59c46db87b7893349e9901bbe17c6.pdf back back

19. Joshua Klein, Congressional Research Service, "Cuba: U.S. Policy Overview," IF10045, updated January 8, 2025, accessed November 11, 2026. https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/IF/PDF/IF10045/IF10045.104.pdf back

20. U.S. Coast Guard, "Coast Guard repatriates 5 aliens to Cuba," May 20, 2025, accessed November 11, 2026. https://www.news.uscg.mil/Press-Releases/Article/4192770/coast-guard-repatriates-5-aliens-to-cuba/ back

21. Jens Manuel Krogstad, Pew Research Center, "Surge in Cuban immigration to U.S. continued through 2016," January 13, 2017, accessed November 11, 2026. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/01/13/cuban-immigration-to-u-s-surges-as-relations-warm/ back

22. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, "Nationwide Encounters," files by area of responsibility for fiscal years 2020 to 2026 (the latest dated October 15, 2026), accessed November 11, 2026. https://www.cbp.gov/document/stats/nationwide-encounters back back back

23. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, "CBP Releases December 2024 Monthly Update," January 14, 2025, accessed November 11, 2026. https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-releases-december-2024-monthly-update back