“I identify much more with right-wing policies than with left-wing policies,” says the young man, 35, who worked as a chef on the Island and now, in Florida, has a job in a kitchen, in addition to driving trucks. Beyond his political opinions, he explains that Trump has not disappointed him, while the Democrats, with former President Joe Biden at the head, have. “Greatly,” he says.
Although it has allowed Pedro to stay in the country and request a hearing in the Immigration Court, the I-220A, a “provisional release order,” does not guarantee a ruling in his favor. He, in fact, has been waiting for his court date since he arrived in April 2022. “I never understood why Biden had those guidelines for Cubans, because the Cuban Adjustment Act protects us, and we can legally obtain our residence in the US after a year and a day,” he says. “Three years after I entered, Biden left the White House without adjusting our situation, which he could have done with a stroke of the pen. He didn’t, he wasn’t interested.”
“Maybe,” he ventures, “it’s a kind of punishment, because most Cubans support Donald Trump.” When Trump took office, all their hopes were reborn. “I think the day when I can be a resident will not be very far off, and above all I trust that we have a Secretary of State who identifies himself as Cuban,” he says referring to Marco Rubio, an American born to parents originally from the Island. “That, for me, causes tremendous pride, to know that a Cuban has come so far in the most powerful country in the world.” continue reading
In the same case as Pedro, but with an appearance date in the Immigration Court – in September 2025 – is Liliana, who entered the United States with her boyfriend in July 2022, having spent, like the thousands of Cubans who take the route through Nicaragua, about 10,000 dollars per head. She is also disappointed with the Biden Administration. Why? “For letting us pass irregularly and then, once here, never regularizing our cases and continuing to let so many people pass, giving so many Paroles, while those of us who have been here for so many years are in migratory limbo.” Thus, she is a supporter of Trump and hopes that the current Administration will regularize her situation.
Liliana is convinced that the Trump Government will do “the right thing for us”
Liliana, who, like her partner, was a doctor on the Island and was sanctioned in Cuba for having deserted her mission in Venezuela, is convinced that the Trump Government will do “the right thing for us, those of us who are working, those of us who declare taxes, those of us who have not committed a crime and those of us who also received political asylum.”
Their legal representatives, however, are prudent. “At the beginning, lawyers did give us a lot of hope, but now they don’t. They say that everything depends on the judge we get in court, on the particular case.”
A crack, in any case, is felt among the Cubans who arrived in the United States in the exodus of the last four years. Although they all express very similar reasons for having left the Island – lack of freedom and the desire to prosper – they are divided by their way of seeing things according to how they arrived and the document they received to to stay on US territory. Some irregularly and others legally; some, in the hands of mafias that transported them by land, crossing four countries in several weeks, and others, without that suffering; some spending an average of 10,000 dollars, some one tenth as much.
The fact that through Biden’s measures, known repressors of the Cuban regime have been able to establish themselves in US territory – 135 according to the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba – only increases the resentment towards the previous US Administration about their I-220A status.
“We made the difficult decision to leave Cuba after constant threats, harassment, persecution and fear”
Dayana arrived in the United States in January 2022 with her husband and has an I-220A court date. “We made the difficult decision to leave Cuba after constant threats, harassment, persecution and fear,” says this woman, about 40 years old, who participated in the demonstration of 11 July 2021 in Havana.
“We went out into the streets to protest, to demand freedom, democracy, free elections, to shout down communism, and we had to run and hide, because there was a huge deployment of the police, of the repressive apparatus. We saw many people get hit, many arrests, just for peacefully protesting and asking for freedom,” she recalls. “They went to look for me at my house; they interrogated me all night, and since they could not find witnesses or evidence and there was no recording in which I was present, they released us – after threatening us, of course.”
Until then, both she, an economist by training, and her husband lived by being mules, selling merchandise that they bought in Panama. But those days marked a turning point in their lives. “They have a mechanism created so that at any time, whenever they decide, they can invent a reason for you, crimes that you have not committed and make you look like a criminal, like scum, and they can arrest you whenever they want, and that’s why we left. After all the fines and harassment, the next step would have been prison.”
Dayana recounts the hardships she suffered: “We crossed Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, risking our lives, putting ourselves in the hands of unknown people, with much fear, a lot of stress, with many worries, crossing land, rivers, seas, deserts, but with much, much desire to be free.”
In addition to expressing her gratitude to the United States for welcoming them, she is forceful in her opinion about the current president. “We value this country immensely, and that is why we are supporters of Trump’s policies. I consider the decisions he is making regarding migration to be correct. All the people who do not behave well in this country, who do not value the great opportunity given to us migrants, I think they do not deserve to be here,” she says. “The people who want to act for the good of the country, who want to behave, study, progress, offer the best for this country, like me. So yes, we hope that Trump will legalize our status.”
“The Cuban Adjustment Act does not specify anything about the type of ’parole’ you must have to be in the country, and, as is already known, the I-220A is a conditional ’parole’.”
Christian Benítez, in the United States since February 2022 and with a court date, thinks the Trump Administration has a solution to the I-220A. “The Cuban Adjustment Act does not specify anything about the type of specific permit, the parole, that you need to be in the country, and, as is already known, the I-220A is a conditional parole,” he says. “The people who have come to this country are against the dictatorship, and we should be able to take advantage of a law that has been in existence for many years and from which so many Cubans who have escaped from that dictatorship have benefited, because nothing has really changed in Cuba. Everything remains the same; the dictatorship is the same and continues with the same plans as at the beginning: to massacre, humiliate and destroy society.”
Ariam is more skeptical. He also has an I-220A, but he arrived in December 2021 from Mexico, not by way of Nicaragua, thanks to a Schengen visa he had for being married to a Spanish citizen. His journey, then, cost a little less, although not that little: 7,000 dollars. “I was convinced that the Trump Government would mark a decisive moment towards Cuba and that I could change my status. However, since the beginning of his mandate, the news for migrants is not pleasant at all,” he says. “There was talk of mass deportations for criminals and people with a criminal record, but many people have been arrested for no apparent reason, just for not having a case of political asylum or for not having enough money to hire lawyers, which are so expensive in this country.”
Even so, he is optimistic about his court appearance next month. “The lawyers who represent us tell us to wait, not to be afraid of the measures taken so far, that sooner or later the Government must implement a law to gradually favor migrants with the I-220A status, and that the first thing I must do is defend my asylum case in Immigration Court.”
“The lawyers who represent us tell us to wait, not to be afraid of the measures taken so far”
Compared to those who fled Cuba through the path opened by the regime through Nicaragua at the end of 2021, the year of the massive protests on the Island, the panorama is very different for those who entered the US through the CBP One application, established by the Biden Government in January 2023, along with other measures such as Humanitarian Parole, in order to curb the migration crisis. Although most of them have already been able to take advantage of the Cuban Adjustment Act, having resided in the United States for a year and a day, others have recently arrived in the country. These are the ones who suffer the greatest fear about the new administration: a document leaked to the American press in January established Trump’s desire to deport all migrants with humanitarian parole or CBP One, even if they have accessed the country legally.
For example, Rolando, a 31-year-old from Holguín, entered the US last December from Colombia under the Safe Mobility refugee program. Although he is part of the last Cubans who managed to enter under the Biden Administration, he says he feels confident in his migration process so far. “I requested it from Bogotá, and they confirmed in a few months that I had been selected for the program. But I know other Cubans who were left waiting to be called, and when Trump came to power, everything fell apart,” he says. “On the same day, January 20, they eliminated everything.”
The young man hurried to get his work permit and his identity documents before the current president took power. Rolando’s driver’s license and work permit are valid for five years, but as soon as he passes one year and a day in the US, he will take advantage of the Cuban Adjustment Act and apply for residence.
“I have heard my mother and my aunt telling my brother in Cuba that there is a very big possibility that Trump will deport them”
Efrén, who entered Mexico with CBP One just three months ago, is in a similar situation. “Yes, I’m a little worried,” he acknowledges. “I already managed to have all the documents I’m entitled to through the program – work permit, driver’s license and all that – but anyway, with all the madness that there is with migrants, one always worries. The Government says it is focusing on illegals, to begin with, but we know that they have even arrested citizens. Until you confirm that you’re legal, you can have a bad time. People are afraid.”
Even those who have already applied for residence are afraid. Marlon entered the United States in December 2023 and planned to apply for it under the Cuban Adjustment Act if he could raise the necessary money. Seeing the aggressiveness of the current Administration toward migrants, he chose to borrow 3,000 dollars to complete the legal process. He did it a week after Trump arrived at the White House: “I had not been able to raise all the money because a family issue prevented me, but a friend was able to help me with a loan, and it’s better to be safe rather than living with the anxiety that you can be arrested,” says the 28-year-old.
Despite the confidence in immigration privileges for being Cuban, there is fear in the community, “even among people who should not have it,” says Pedro. “I heard my mother and my aunt telling my brother in Cuba that there is a very big possibility that Trump will deport them, even though I have told them a thousand times that they will not be deported, since they applied for residency months ago and will receive it once they arrive.”
Not to mention the non-Cuban migrants. The fear is palpable as soon as you step into the street. Pedro himself says that all the handymen who offered themselves at the doors of Home Depot to help in any home repair or construction activity have disappeared. An employee of the establishment was clear with him last Saturday: “I’m not even going to find them,” he told me, and not only in this Home Depot, but in all of them. They have left because they are afraid that Immigration will come and take them away.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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14ymedio, Madrid, 21 February 2025 — The authorities’ concern about the increase in the amount of drugs circulating on the Island is as evident as is its desire to spread the message that they are fighting on all fronts. This is demonstrated by apparently trivial details such as the fact that this Thursday Noticiero Estelar issued a brief report about a trial held in Havana against a 50-year-old man accused of drug trafficking for being in possession of a package in his name with 7.5 kilograms of cocaine from the Dominican Republic.
