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The Mariel boatlift (Spanish: éxodo del Mariel) was a mass emigration of Cubans who traveled from Cuba's Mariel Harbor to the United States between April 15 and October 31, 1980. The term " Marielito " is used to refer to these refugees in both Spanish and English .
The Cuban government permitted approximately 125,000 Cubans to board a decrepit fleet of boats in Mariel Harbor. Of the 125,000 refugees that entered the United States on the boatlift, around 16,000 to 20,000 were estimated to be criminals or "undesirables" [ 2 ] according to a 1985 Sun Sentinel magazine article.
In May 1980 around 19,000 Cuban refugees from the Mariel boatlift were airlifted to the Fort Chaffee Maneuver Training Center for immigration processing. The first 128 Cubans brought to the base by plane were met by a trespassing klansman on the tarmac who warned officials to not let them in, claiming they were criminals. [ 3 ]
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Also in 1984, the United States and Cuba negotiated an agreement to resume normal immigration and to return to Cuba those persons who had arrived during the boatlift who were "excludable" under U.S. law. Many members of the Mariel boatlift were met with suspicion by the Cuban American community already living in the United States.
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