Mariel Boatlift - The End

The End

The Cuban government eventually closed the Mariel harbor to would-be emigrants. Approximately 125,000 Cubans arrived at the United States' shores in about 1,700 boats, creating large waves of people that overwhelmed the U.S. Coast Guard. 27 migrants died, including 14 on an overloaded boat that capsized on May 17, 1980. Upon their arrival, many Cubans were placed in refugee camps. Others were held in federal prisons pending deportation hearings.

Crowded conditions in South Florida immigration processing centers forced U.S. federal agencies to move many of the Marielitos to other centers in Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, Camp Santiago, Puerto Rico, and Fort Chaffee, Arkansas. Riots occurred at the Fort Chaffee center and some detainees escaped which became a campaign issue in the re-election defeat of Governor Bill Clinton.

Many refugees were discovered to be undesirables; for example, criminals or mental patients who had been released from Cuban prisons or other institutions. The exact number of undesirables that arrived in the boatlift is disputed, with estimates ranging from as low as 7,500 to as high as 40,000. The generally accepted figure comes from a 1991 Congressional report which estimates that roughly 25 percent of the 125,000 refugees, or about 31,000 people, were undesirables of this type.

The majority of refugees were ordinary Cubans. In the end, only 2% (or 2,746) of the refugees were classified as serious or violent criminals under U.S. law and denied citizenship on that basis.