Editing Operation Peter Pan (section)

=== Emigration ===
By January 1961, 6,500 Cuban children were enrolled in Miami and Miami-adjacent schools.<ref name="Shnookal 2020 Operation Pedro Pan and the Children Who Could Fly"/> By September 1962, that number had jumped to 19,000.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shnookal |first1=Deborah |chapter=The Dark Side of Neverland |pages=160–196 |jstor=j.ctv12sdxzr.11 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv12sdxzr.11 |title=Operation Pedro Pan and the Exodus of Cuba's Children |date=2020 |publisher=University of Florida Press |isbn=978-1-68340-155-1 |s2cid=242704360 }}</ref> And while Pedro Pans are often depicted as babies, infants or elementary-school-aged children, most of them were actually teenaged boys.

A lack of limitations placed on how many were admitted coupled with federally-funded foster care made the Cuban Children's Program one unlike any other. It only continued to grow and get more complex.

In January 1961, the U.S. embassy of Cuba closed, but Operation Peter Pan persisted. Instead of visas, children received waivers in the form of simple letters signed by Walsh effectively gaining them entrance into the country. Airlines were instructed to accept these letters as official documents and, as an added incentive, the U.S. government covered the cost of flights.<ref name="Shnookal 2020 Operation Pedro Pan and the Children Who Could Fly"/>

From there, things continued to spiral. In September of that year, the State Department began allowing Cuban child refugees to apply for visa waivers on behalf of their parents. For many who could not otherwise afford it or did not already have other relatives in the United States, this became a fairly regular means of familial immigration.<ref name="Shnookal 2020 Operation Pedro Pan and the Children Who Could Fly"/>