Lawyer says self-deportation is a serious mistake
Two Cubans who had an I-220A document made the drastic decision to return to Cuba for fear of being deported. The story was revealed by journalist Javier Díaz, from Univision, who shared the appearance of a lawyer who described the action as a “terrible mistake.”
The lawyer explained that, in the case of having a pending asylum application, leaving the country without an immigration permit is equivalent to abandoning the asylum process. The couple, whose identity has not been revealed, expressed their fear of being transferred to the Guantanamo naval base, after the US authorities reported the relocation of 30,000 illegal immigrants to that site.
This type of decision they made could mark a trend among migrants who, faced with uncertainty and the lack of legal status, choose to return to Cuba in the hope of finding a new opportunity to settle in the United States in the future.
The situation of Cubans with I-220A in the US has become a matter of growing concern. Currently, hundreds of thousands of Antilleans with this document fear being deported due to the new immigration policies implemented by the Donald Trump administration. The Cuban community has requested special treatment, arguing that their situation should not be generalized with that of other irregular immigrants.
The I-220A is a Parole Order granted to certain immigrants who were detained at the border and later released. However, this document is not considered a parole for the purposes of the Immigration Courts, which prevents Cubans from applying for permanent residence through the Cuban Adjustment Act. This leaves them in legal limbo, with political asylum as their only option for protection.
The affected Antilleans have held protests in Washington and Miami demanding that the government recognize their situation and provide a solution.
(Source: TRC)
Following the new immigration policies, Cubans with I-220A fear being deported while waiting for asylum hearings. The Adjustment Act does not guarantee residency.
Cuban migrants who received an I-220A upon arriving in the United States are afraid and uncertain about what will happen to their lives after the new provisions adopted by the Trump administration.
The document grants them a temporary stay permit in the country while they resolve their legal situation, but many are not sure that it will be enough to avoid deportation.
Yunior Luis Pino Pérez, a participant in the 11J protests, received an I-220A after crossing the border through Mexico. He lives in Miami, where he requested political asylum. This year he has a second hearing to defend his case before the immigration court, but until then he fears being deported.
"My life is in danger in Cuba, after being blackmailed and forced into exile. I simply cannot return," he told Martí Noticias.
Another case is that of Dayvel Álvarez, who arrived in July 2022 and requested asylum shortly after. After a year and a day, he requested residency under the Cuban Adjustment Act. He still has no response from any process.
"I only received the work permit. I am waiting, that is stopped, when I review the case, I still do not have a court date," he said.
Oscar Casanella's story is different. He is a political activist who in Cuba lived harassed and threatened by State Security, especially after the San Isidro Movement was quartered in Old Havana in 2020.
In 2022, he crossed the border with his young son and his pregnant wife. He handed over all the documentation that proved they were a family so that they would not be separated. However, each was given separate documents and did not have an interview.
"We wanted them to do the credible fear interview, we tried that, but they released us with the I-220A without being able to explain that we were politically persecuted," he lamented.
Casanella, a biochemical scientist, applied for political asylum and this year he must have his first court date.
His greatest fear after the new US immigration policy is that "general measures are applied, not case by case analysis, and people who have solid political asylum fall into the same bag as other people."
For many, it is almost a mystery to understand what criteria immigration officers follow at the border to grant an I-220A form or parole. There are families that entered together and their members received different treatment.
According to The Associated Press in 2022, the Border Patrol chose to grant parole because it was a faster process and did not have conditions in the detention centers to receive the avalanche of migrants.
Some Cubans with the I-220A obtained residency by applying for the Cuban Adjustment Act. But in 2023, the United States Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) rejected the option of considering the form as a way to access legal residency, which pushed Cubans to request political asylum.
Thousands of them, who arrived between 2017 and 2024, are in immigration limbo, waiting for their cases to be heard in an immigration court, and according to some lawyers, they could remain like this for years due to the increase in applications.
Note: The Trump administration could tighten immigration policies and increase deportations, posing a significant risk to Cubans with I-220As. While this document offers a certain level of protection, it does not guarantee safety from more restrictive policies.
(Source: cibercuba.com)
Trump says he will open migrant detention center at Guantánamo Bay
In his bill signing remarks, Trump said he was planning to sign an executive order opening a detention center at Guantánamo Bay that would hold up to 30,000 people in the US illegally.
Trump said the camp would be used “to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people”. The U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, already houses a migrant facility - separate from the high-security U.S. prison for foreign terrorism suspects - that has been used on occasion for decades, including to house Cubans picked up at sea.
“Some of them are so bad, we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back,” he said. “So we’re going to send them out to Guantánamo. This will double our capacity immediately.”
Of the camp in Cuba, used to hold terrorism suspects, Trump said: “That’s a tough place to get out of.”
An internal government report said the camp was beset by rats and overflowing toilets and inmates were blindfolded while being moved around the facility.
Only 37 migrants were held at Gitmo—the name used as shorthand for the island by the U.S. military—between 2020 to 2023.
Cuban Dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel called the move “an act of brutality” in an X post and reiterated Havana’s position that the land upon which the base is located is “illegally occupied.” The island nation’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, added in a separate post that the decision “shows a lack of concern for the human condition and international law.”
Ira Kurzban, a prominent Miami immigration attorney who had sued numerous U.S. administrations including Trump’s, said the president’s words are all theater, but they still provoke anxiety throughout immigrant communities. “Disgraceful, unlawful, unworkable, and will cost U.S. taxpayers billions, not millions of dollars that are better spent on helping educate our children,” Kurzban said.
Immigrants with family reunification processes from Cuba, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador have had problems boarding their flights to the United States in recent days.
Hundreds of immigrants with family reunification processes from Cuba, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador have had problems boarding their flights to the United States after the arrival of the new administration of Donald Trump.
"When we went to board the plane they told us to go to the U.S. embassy and that they would give us more information there but they wouldn't let us travel," said Olga Lidia Hernández, a beneficiary of the Cuban Family Reunification Program (CFRP).
“They told me that they had denied me permission to fly and gave me no further explanation,” he said.
Bárbara León, mother of Olga Lidia Hernández, told Martí Noticias through tears that she is desperate after the cancellation of the flight of her daughter and two granddaughters. “I've been waiting for this moment for eight years. I traveled to Cuba and they turned us away from the airport. They treated us very badly. We did our immigration processes well. It's not fair," he commented.
Under the Joe Biden administration, family reunification programs were modernized and a routine similar to that of Humanitarian Parole was established that allowed a flight permit to be obtained after the immigrant's facial scan without waiting for an immigrant visa to become available. Previously, beneficiaries of family reunification programs had to undergo a consular interview.
CFRP and other similar programs targeting Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were put into effect or modernized under President Joe Biden's administration. These processes are available exclusively by invitation to certain petitioners whose Forms I-130 (Petition for Alien Relative) have been approved.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) indicates that once invited to the program, immigrants must submit a form I-134A (Online Application to Become a Support Person and Declaration of Financial Support) and if the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services United States (USCIS) verifies that this is appropriate, the Department of Homeland Security conducts a security investigation of each beneficiary and evaluates their eligibility for advance travel authorization.
“In the event that advance travel authorization is granted, the beneficiary may travel to the United States on a commercial airline and request a discretionary permit (Parole) for temporary stay at a port of entry within a United States airport,” adds the DHS.
After reaching the White House, President Donald Trump eliminated similar programs that granted parole to migrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Haiti, as well as revoked the CBP One program that allowed migrants to schedule an appointment to request asylum in the United States.
Trump also revoked the travel of at least 10,000 refugees who were authorized to resettle in the United States, leaving numerous people stranded around the world. Among those affected, more than 1,600 Afghans are trapped in their attempt to escape the Taliban regime.
The Department of Homeland Security deferred to the State Department following a request for comment from Martí Noticias. The State Department returned a request for comment to its Homeland Security counterpart, who administers family reunification programs.
The Cuban Family Reunification Program was stopped for years after mysterious health incidents that left dozens of American diplomats affected at the US Embassy in Cuba.
A reliable source familiar with immigration processes who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to reveal administration policies said that the new administration “is not happy” with many of the initiatives inherited from the Biden administration but that “there has been no made a final decision on family reunification programs.”
“Since January 20, when President Donald Trump took office, not a single beneficiary of these family reunification programs has arrived,” said another source with knowledge of the immigration processes.
Tito Alexander Martínez Guillén, a Salvadoran who had planned to travel to the United States yesterday with his wife and four children after selling his belongings and quitting his job, was stranded in his country.
“When we arrived, the airline told us that they had received a statement from Customs and Border Protection in the United States that they would not let anyone board who had processed their permits through the CBP One app, that they should go to the embassy, but there they told us that “They couldn’t do anything,” he said.
“Right now we have no way to go or anywhere to stay,” he added.
Section 9 of the executive order introduces expedited removals, applicable to those who have been in the country for less than two years
When searching for a specific individual, ICE can arrest other undocumented individuals who are in the same location. (© USA Today)
The raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have officially begun under the Donald Trump administration, Fox News announced in the last few hours.
The main target is the more than 700,000 migrants with criminal records and final orders of deportation who are on the records of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). However, nationwide there are an estimated total of 1.3 million people who have deportation orders,
including thousands of Cubans with I-220A or I-220B.
President Trump repealed deportation priorities set forth by the Biden administration, which focused on specific cases involving national security, public safety, and serious crimes. Under the new guidelines, anyone undocumented in U.S. territory can be deported, regardless of whether their infraction was minor. This leaves a large group of migrants exposed to immediate deportation processes.
In addition, the raids are generating "collateral damage." By searching for a specific individual, ICE can arrest other undocumented people who are in the same location, placing them in removal proceedings as well.
In conversation with journalist Daniel Benítez, immigration attorney José Guerrero warned about the groups that face the greatest risks:
- Migrants with criminal records and final orders of deportation, who are the main target.
- People in detention centers, who still have limited legal possibilities to appeal their cases.
- Those who illegally cross the border, now closed after a declaration of national emergency that allows automatic deportations without the option of asylum.
The recent executive order requires Customs and Border Protection (CBP), ICE, and Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to work together to prioritize deportations. CBP controls the borders, ICE executes deportations and USCIS administers immigration benefits, but now these agencies must coordinate efforts to maximize the efficiency of operations.
Section 9 of the executive order introduces expedited deportations, applicable to those who have been in the country for less than two years. This procedure allows ICE officers to issue deportation orders without judicial review, significantly speeding up processes. While enforcement will depend on the cooperation of countries of origin to receive their citizens, this measure promises to facilitate mass deportations.