Concerns grow among Cubans in the US over a possible increase in the deportation of migrants with the I-220B form
14ymedio, Havana, July 15, 2024 — Two Cuban rafters, whose boat was shipwrecked 80 nautical miles north of Isla Mujeres, were rescued this Saturday by the Mexican Navy. According to the local media Cambio 22, they were found by Uxmal PC-335 coastal patrol personnel on “a table on top of several drums,” which kept them afloat for hours.
The Cubans, whose identity was reserved, were detected by the Regional Captaincy of Puerto de Juárez, which notified the Ninth Naval Region for the implementation of the rescue operation. After providing them with medical assistance, they were handed over to the National Institute of Migration.
The authorities are investigating the rafters’ version of the breakdown of the raft on which they made the crossing. This Sunday they will carry out an inspection in the area where the migrants were located.
Last May, four Cubans — Yurieski Romero Hernández, Mario Sergio Márquez Ventura, Rogelio Loaces Fuentes and Diosan Lazo Loaces — who spent 34 days adrift on the high seas, received a residence card for humanitarian reasons.
Five other Cuban rafters were rescued by the Navy on May 6. The migrants had been located before disembarking in Punta Pájaros, a private island located in the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve.
Meanwhile, in the United States there is fear among Cubans with the probation form I-220B (people with this document can be deported at any time) in the face of a pattern of detentions and possible deportations to the Island.
Yoselianys Rodríguez was arrested after attending her appointment with the Immigration and Customs Service (ICE) in Miramar (Florida), reported her husband Ashley Cepero, a doctor who left a mission in Venezuela and now has U.S. nationality. Cepero told Telemundo 51 this Saturday that when Rodríguez entered the United States, she was arrested at the Broward Transitional Center (BTC). “She went to court, but unfortunately they didn’t defend her and didn’t prepare her properly,” he said.
Immigration lawyer Antonio Ramos said that the arrest of Cubans with I-220B and without a criminal record is strange. “There are people with crimes who are not deported to Cuba. And people who are honest and who have not committed any crime are deported just because Cuba is accepting them,” he said.
Llamiris Gámez was arrested by ICE agents on June 17 while on her way to work.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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