MIAMI, (CMC) – The Mayor of Miami has warned that the city does not have the funds to deal with the Cuban refugees who are expected to arrive from Central America in the coming weeks.

On Friday, Mayor Tomas Regalado said the federal government has not notified him of plans to provide shelter for the Cubans who have been stranded in Costa Rica since last November.

On November 15, Nicaragua closed its border to the Cubans on grounds of risks to its security and sovereignty, as a result just under 8,000 migrants from Cuba, who have been looking for a way to get to the United States, have been stuck in Costa Rica.

Faced with the likelihood that many will end up in Miami, Regalado said at present the municipal shelters “are full to capacity,” and asserted that the city simply does not have “the infrastructure to assimilate 20 or 30 more people a day.”

More than 43,000 Cubans entered the United States during the fiscal year that ended September 30, an increase of more than 77 per cent over the previous fiscal year.

“We can’t predict how many will come this time, but we know the enormous cost their arrival will entail,” Regalado said.

A possible solution to the situation would be for the federal government to establish its own shelters in the area, given that Miami has neither the resources nor the capability to build them, the mayor said.

Regalado believed it unlikely that President Barack Obama will seek changes to the Cuban Adjustment Act which allows Cubans who set foot on US soil to obtain legal residence in the country after just one year.

Last Thursday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the United States government has no plans at the moment to change that law, which, according to Havana, sparked the current migration crisis in Central America.

The first batch of Cuban migrants attempting the enter the United States, are scheduled to leave Costa Rica on Tuesday.

The group of 180 Cubans will depart by plane to El Salvador on, from there they will have ground transportation to the Guatemala-Mexico border.

Costa Rica’s Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez, said other flights from Costa Rica, will depend on the success of this upcoming flight.

Last month, Central American nations reached an agreement, which will see the migrants being airlifted to El Salvador and placed on buses that will take them to the US.

The number of Cubans hoping to enter the US through Latin America by land, has risen sharply since December 2014, when the two countries announced an agreement to begin restoring relations.