Immigrant Holocaust Reaches Cubans

Donald Trump decided that immigrants are the No. 1 enemy in the United States, but everyone was surprised when the hunt expanded to South Florida, where the president’s best friends live. For the first time in more than 60 years, hundreds of Cuban immigrants, many of whom are women without criminal records, are lined up at Broward County’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, fearing they will not be able to go home.

Last week, 18 Cuban women who were arrested when they appeared for scheduled immigration appointments are now facing uncertain deportation proceedings. The message is clear: For Cubans, too, the policy of chase and deport has arrived after decades of enjoying a privileged immigration status — part of a punitive policy that targeted Havana. On the one hand, the U.S. choked the Cuban economy at unprecedented levels; on the other hand, it opened doors to immigration with all kinds of social benefits — casting blame on Miguel Díaz-Canel’s government for its shortcomings in a perverse loop of pressure, accusation and political manipulation.

In January 2023, President Joe Biden implemented a humanitarian parole program, presented as a legal, orderly and safe route for migration from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua. More than 110,000 people from Cuba alone were able to enter the U.S. through this program, while Washington tightened the screws on its policy of maximum pressure on Havana.

But last Friday, the Department of Homeland Security published a document that generated a legal and humanitarian earthquake. The department was suspending the parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.

Thus, some 26,000 Cubans who entered the U.S. after March 2024 will remain in legal limbo, at risk of being deported. They will not be able to avail themselves of the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 if they have not been in this country for more than one year.

The Cuban Adjustment Act — which Fidel Castro called “murderous” — has historically encouraged illegal immigration by sea on precarious rafts and in shark-infested waters. The law guarantees that any Cuban who enters the country, no matter how, can obtain residency a year and a day after setting foot in the U.S. In 1995 under Bill Clinton, it became known as the “wet foot, dry foot” policy, which implied that all Cubans intercepted at sea (“wet feet”) were returned to the island, but those who managed to make landfall (“dry feet”) could remain in the U.S., obtain a work permit and some initial aid and, after a year, apply for permanent residency.

However, under the Trump administration, Cubans who entered under humanitarian parole and have already served more than a year in this country, find their chances of attaining residency up in the air.

According to CBS, a Feb. 14 memo signed by a senior Immigration Service official says that the “adjustment” cases of Cubans who have entered with humanitarian parole are, for now, “on hold.”

Cubans who have entered the country illegally are also now on the hook. Previously, upon arrival at the border, they were paroled from immigration detention and the need for a court appearance. Then, after a year in the U.S., they received a green card.

To prevent these Cubans from qualifying for the Adjustment Act, Immigration has dubbed the former parole program as I-220A, a kind of de facto, but not necessarily de jure, parole. The Court of Immigration Appeals ruled that the I-220A does not satisfy the parole condition that a Cuban would need to apply for residency under the Adjustment Act.

This means that instead of being in line to receive a green card, Cubans have been put on a waiting list to be deported from the U.S. just like any other person without documentation.

The Cuban community in Florida is experiencing a bitter awakening. For years, many believed in the siren song of the Republican Party and enthusiastically supported figures like Trump, who today betrays them without the slightest hesitation.

The president has not only proposed the total suspension of parole, but also threatened to deny entry to Cubans with visas. He has declared war not only on migrants, but also on their defenders: lawyers, media, universities and any institution that provides support or protection. He seeks to sow fear and immobilization. Silence and obedience.

Thus, what has been exposed is not only the fragile legal status of thousands of people, but the profound ethical inconsistency of a system that uses human beings as political instruments.

In the end, Cubans are all that Trump needs to cultivate the latest immigrant holocaust: They come from abroad, speak Spanish and — in the eyes of the president — are inferior beings with “bad genes,” despite having paid homage to him at the polls in Miami.