A campaign is launched in Miami against Cuban-American Republican politicians, whom they call “traitors.”
14ymedio, Havana/Miami, April 8, 2025 — “Do not try to stay in the US, the Federal Government will find you.” With this Orwellian phrase, the US authorities concluded their warning to migrants, including many Cubans, who came in through Mexico and, using the CBP One application, obtained Humanitarian Parole for one or two years to regularize their situation.
The measure particularly affects Cuban citizens, since migrants from other nationalities who used this application mostly opted for asylum or temporary protection status, while Cubans, with the intention of availing themselves of the Cuban Adjustment Law, decided to wait a year and a day (the period required before opting for this law), and did not request asylum.
The message, to which this newspaper had access, urges its recipients to self-deport themselves and emphasizes, with threats, that the migration police have the means to locate those who hide from them and avoid the request. Through their email, which migrants provided upon entering the US, the “notice of termination of probation” has stoked concern for the umpteenth time since last January 20, when Donald Trump took office.
“It’s time for you to leave the United States,” the text says bluntly from the beginning. “You are here because the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has granted you an entry permit for a limited period.” Invoking section 1182 of the US Code and Title 8 of the Code of Federal Regulations, DHS informs that it will “immediately” exercise its right to revoke permission.
If work or a travel permit has been obtained during that time “it shall also be cancelled”
“If you do not leave the US immediately,” it stresses, “you will be subject to possible police action that will result in your expulsion from the country, unless you have obtained a legal basis for remaining here.” If work or a travel permit has been obtained during that time, “it shall also be cancelled,” adds the warning, as well as any other benefit resulting from humanitarian parole.
The mail also threatens “possible criminal proceedings, fines and civil penalties, and any other legal options available to the Federal Government.”
The authorities’ recommendation is to leave “immediately” – the third time the document uses the expression- and “on your own.” Self-deportation, recommended by the Trump administration as a method to leave US territory “by any means necessary,” is carried out through the CBP Home application, launched several weeks ago.
It also repeats what the migrants knew since March: that this application has a mechanism to prove, through satellite data, that the migrant is now outside the country. This measure, which many have seen as a means of tightening surveillance on migrants, even outside the country, has also been controversial.
The measure is already causing tension and anxiety in the community of Cuban emigrants. In Florida, where it is raining hard this Tuesday, Jorge, a 49-year-old construction worker, says that one of his colleagues had to go to the hospital because of the emotional impact the news had on him.
The measure already arouses tension and anxiety in the community of Cuban emigrants
He explains to 14ymedio that they never check their mobile phones while at work, but that because of the rain, they had time off. “He read his mail, his blood pressure shot up and he ended up in the ER.” He is not alone, says Jorge: he knows at least three work colleagues in the same situation.
“I’m at a friend’s house in another state,” says Amanda, alarmed. The 35-year-old entered the US almost at the same time as Trump entered Washington. “When I came in, they did a whole check, scanned my documents and looked at my criminal record in Cuba,” she adds, to illustrate that the American government has access to all her information.
The raids managed to frighten her, and this email gave her the impetus to leave Florida, where many migrants – Cubans, but also Venezuelans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and other nationalities – feel abandoned by the authorities.
This Monday, an unequivocal sign of this nonconformity surprised drivers passing under the billboard on the Palmetto Highway in Miami. “Traitors to immigrants, to Miami-Dade, to the American dream,” said the poster in white on red, next to the faces of Cuban-Americans Marco Rubio, U.S. Secretary of State, María Elvira Salazar, Carlos Giménez and Mario Díaz-Balart, members of Congress.
“Temporary Protection Status,” says a smaller sign, accompanied by the Venezuelan flag. The billboard is funded by the Miami-Dade County Hispanic Democratic Caucus, an organization affiliated with the Democratic Party. Congresswoman Salazar, in statements to El Nuevo Herald, called the sign “cheap propaganda in the style of Castro.”
On Tuesday, Reuters reported Trump’s plans to fine, up to $998 per day, each migrant who does not voluntarily leave the US, as directed by his government. In case they do not have the money, he has threatened to confiscate their properties, according to documents from the White House consulted by the British agency.
The measure, which Trump used in 2018 during his first term, is backed by a 1996 law that, if applied retroactively to the last five years, could force more than $1 million in fines for migrants. Reuters asked Washington for explanations, and a DHS spokesman responded with a formula: anyone who entered the US illegally should “self-deport and leave the country now. If they do not, they will face the consequences, and this includes a fine of 998 dollars per day.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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