The last flight and first steps: 'Historic' surge of Cubans crossing into U.S.
By Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN Updated 7:53 AM ET, Tue May 31, 2016
http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/31/us/border-cuban-migrants-el-paso/index.htmlEl Paso, Texas (CNN)Rubén Lorenzo Peláez circles the chair like a ninja, silently shifting from one foot to the other.
For a moment, the snip-snip-snip of his shears is the only sound in the room.
The scissors won't close all the way. His vision is blurry. And he's nearly 2,000 miles away from the loyal clients who once got bobs and buzz cuts at his barber shop in central Cuba.
But this is the first time in months he's felt at home.
It's been just a day since Lorenzo sat in an airplane's aisle seat, shaping his thumb and index finger into an "L" for "libertad" as a friend snapped his photo.
The chartered jet was one of dozens that shuttled stranded Cuban migrants from Panama to Mexico this month in what officials described as a humanitarian airlift.
Its aim: help Cubans reach the United States after several Central American countries closed their borders to the surge of people pushing north.
Lorenzo made it onto the last flight.
Now he -- and thousands of others who say they're fleeing a repressive government and searching for economic opportunity -- are taking their first steps in the United States.
As America's newest immigrants search for places to put down roots, refugee agencies say they're struggling to deal with the influx, and politicians are sparring over whether this group of immigrants should be here in the first place.
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