Group of Cuban doctors arrives in Miami

https://www.diarioextra.com/Noticia/detalle/269441/llega-a-miami-grupo-de-medicos-cubanos

Miami (EFE) .- A group of seven doctors who were stranded in Colombia arrived in Miami (Florida) after obtaining a permit to enter the country under the Cuban Medical Professional Parole (CMPP) program, local media reported. The group of health professionals, which arrived at Miami International Airport on Saturday afternoon, joins dozens of other doctors who have come to the United States in recent weeks, especially this city in South Florida, from Venezuela. , where they integrated missions organized by the Cuban Government. "I feel very happy, very excited to arrive in Miami after so much uncertainty," Discel Rodríguez, 42, of Bayamo, told the Miami newspaper El Nuevo Herald. The procession was received by relatives and close friends who were waiting for them at terminal J of the airport and had words of thanks for the US congressmen for Florida Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Díaz-Balart and Carlos Curbelo. Weeks ago, lawmakers asked the US immigration authorities expedite the process of refuge for Cuban doctors who are stranded in Colombia, because there were many processes to resolve. The legislators, all of Cuban origin, urged the director of the Immigration and Citizenship Service (USCIS), León Rodríguez, to "assist applicants in Colombia and our US embassy to process these cases." At least a thousand Cuban health professionals have fled Venezuela and are seeking refuge in the United States from Bogotá (Colombia) under the CMPP program, which was created in 2006 during the government of President George W. Bush (2001-2009) to assist Cuban health professionals escaping from international missions in third countries. "We are forced to become doctors to immigrants because of people who have been in power for 55 years," Yoandy Pérez Campo, a graduate in comprehensive rehabilitation who was part of the delegation that arrived in Miami, told the local media. According to the Miami-based organization Solidaridad Sin Fronteras (SSF), the delay in the processing of special visas in the United States has created a situation of economic precariousness among Cubans who are stranded in Colombia.