Former political prisoner Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca and his wife say they are “at risk for having entered the country under humanitarian parole.”
14ymedio, Havana, 29 March 2025 — Laura de la Caridad González Sánchez, one of the Cubans with an I-220A Form who were arrested in Miami by the Office of Immigration and Customs Control (ICE), was released on Thursday. Cuban-American congresswoman María Elvira Salazar attributed the young woman’s liberation to her efforts with the immigration authorities and the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
According to Salazar on social networks, since she learned of González’s case she has maintained “close communication with her family” and talked to ICE to release her. “I personally spoke with ICE and DHS to request her release, stressing that she had no criminal record, had a pending asylum case and posed no risk to society,” she said.
She also added that in her conversations with the office she requested the cessation of the arrests of Cubans with I-220A who have no record and are waiting for the resolution of their asylum cases. “I highlighted the terrible conditions in Cuba, where a brutal dictatorship tortures dissidents and tramples on human rights,” said the congresswoman. She said she had no news of new cases like González’s since her last conversation with ICE.
In an interview with Univision, González, 26, claimed to have felt “very afraid of deportation” during her stay in a California detention center. The nursing student entered the United States illegally in 2022 and was granted Form I-220A, an alternative from the Government for asylum seekers that avoids keeping them under arrest until trial.
In an interview with Univision, González, 26, claimed to have felt “very afraid of deportation”
However, González was arrested on March 10 after attending a routine appointment at the ICE office in Miramar. Then, she told the media, the authorities warned her that she would be transferred to another center under the custody of the institution.
“It never crossed my mind that I could be involved in such a situation,” said the young woman, who says that the officials never explained to her the reason for the arrest.
González was not the only one in custody. According to Univision, another group of women were also sent with her to the Broward detention center. Shortly after, she was sent to another facility in California until her release last Thursday, although she must wear an electronic ankle bracelet.
The media has reported in recent weeks at least five other cases of Cubans detained during their appointments with ICE who have not been released. The most recent was that of Beatriz Monteagudo, another young woman with no criminal record. Before her, Denice Reyes and her husband were detained – he was released with an ankle bracelet and she was sent to the center at Broward – in addition to Yadira Cantallops Hernández, mother of a small child born in the United States, who has a trial date scheduled for April.
Cubans with Form I-220A are not the only ones who fear being deported by the US authorities. This Saturday, the opponent Eralidis Frometa Polanco denounced on social networks the appearance of an announcement on the pages of the US Government dedicated to the beneficiaries of parole that warns about the suspension of the program.
“As a result of the Executive Order, the Department of Homeland Security has exercised its power to end parole programs for foreigners who are nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and their immediate relatives,” reads the striking red sign.
Frometa and her husband, an independent journalist and former political prisoner Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca, arrived in the United States in 2024
Frometa and her husband, an independent journalist and former political prisoner Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca, arrived in the United States in 2024 through humanitarian parole after being expelled by the Havana regime. Valle, in fact, was serving a prison sentence in the Combinado del Este in Havana and was released and transferred directly to the airport by prison agents.
“Both my husband, an independent journalist and former political prisoner of conscience, and I are at risk for having entered with the humanitarian parole,” she said.
In mid-March, Washington announced that it will revoke the Humanitarian Parole Program as of April 24, when the resolution signed by the Department of Homeland Security comes into force. The rule indicates that people who have benefited from the permit do not have a legal basis to stay in the US and that after the end of the parole they must leave the country.
The Humanitarian Parole Program, approved by Joe Biden, favored the legal arrival in the United States of 110,240 Cubans, Haitians (213,150), Nicaraguans (96,270) and Venezuelans (120,760). The latest data published by the federal agency recorded 110,970 travel authorizations for Cubans.
Last Thursday, the organizations Red UndocuBlack (UBN), the Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants (Chirla) and Casa filed a lawsuit against the revocation of parole for the four countries involved. The agencies, represented by the Justice Action Center, explained that the expulsion of thousands of beneficiaries violates the “due process of migration.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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