Cubans are arriving to the US in record numbers. Smugglers are profiting from their exodus

As Cuba confronts the worst shortages of food and medicine in decades and runaway inflation, a new exodus of the island's citizens is underway.

In March, more than 32,000 Cubans arrived at the US-Mexico border, almost twice the number from the previous month, according to US Customs and Border Protection data.

Desperate to leave Cuba, Claudia, her husband and their young son managed to obtain visas to Mexico in Havana -- the first step in a journey that placed them in the hands of criminal smuggling networks that are known to charge migrants thousands of dollars for safe passage to the US border.