NPR's David Welna reports on the 20th anniversary of the Mariel Boatlift, the massive wave of immigration from Cuba to Florida in 1980. Over a five-month period, 125-thousand Cuban refugees left Cuba from the port of Mariel, and traveled to the United States in small boats. Processing the huge influx overwhelmed the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The INS task was even harder because the refugees included convicted criminals who had been released from prison and mental patients freed from institutions.
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