Amanda and Carlos try to resist panic: “Some solution will appear, and in the meantime, stay positive.”
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 22 March 2025 — Carlos, 22, arrived in the United States under the Humanitarian Parole Program in August of last year. His parents and brother had already obtained the same permit in the spring of 2023, just months after the program was implemented. Although the rest of the family has already been able to benefit from the Cuban Adjustment Act and has permanent residency, the young man has not yet met the temporary requirement of remaining in the United States for one year to benefit from the same mechanism.
The news of Donald Trump’s revocation of Humanitarian Parole, which will take effect on April 24, has worried him, but he remains optimistic. “I think we have to wait and see what happens because this measure of revoking parole still has to stand the test of time, of a possible lawsuit in court, and of the practicalities of how it will be carried out.” In his case, he believes that “something will appear” so he won’t have to return to the island where he has “no home, no family, no resources to survive.”
“I believe I am an immigrant who can contribute a lot to the United States.”
Amanda, Carlos’s wife, who is still in Cuba, doesn’t see it the same way. From Ciego de Ávila, she tells 14ymedio that she’s worried about the possibility of the young man being deported. She herself has already suffered the cancellation of the Humanitarian Parole Program for Cubans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, and Haitians. “My parents and I had submitted all the paperwork and were waiting for a response when everything went down the drain,” she laments.
In her case, she’s exploring a way out through Canada. “I applied for a visa, and if it’s accepted, I’ll try to settle there. If Carlos has to leave the United States, we can meet there,” she speculates. But Canadian authorities have announced that they are seeking to reduce immigration this year by discouraging asylum seekers and restricting the number of visas they issue. The couple’s options may be affected by this scenario.
“What we have decided is to not sit idly by and to keep the faith that we will be reunited outside of Cuba,” Amanda insists. “Even if Carlos has to leave the United States, it won’t be to return to Ciego de Ávila. We’ll see what we’ll do at that point, but for now, we’ve decided to avoid reading all the news that only scares us more and to wait for him to receive some official communication about his case. In the meantime, stay positive.”
This Friday, the Trump administration released a resolution signed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announcing, starting next month, the revocation of Parole for migrants from the four countries who entered through the program and have not yet regularized their immigration status.
Some Cubans had predicted the imminent end of the measure on several occasions, considering it legally precarious. Others have applauded its cessation, believing it was a gateway that Joe Biden opened for the regime to fill the US with spies. On social media, there are numerous comments alluding to the “poor memory” of exiles, who fail to remember that in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, people left Cuba “fleeing the dictatorship” and never returning.
The ’Parole’, implemented by the Joe Biden administration, was intended to stop undocumented persons from entering the United States.
However, they allege, many of the Cubans who arrived later soon return to the country they supposedly fled. There are people from the island—a Cuban woman who has been exiled in Miami for more than three decades adds—who entered the US “without being properly legalized.” They are now in a precarious situation “because of the Democratic administration of Joe Biden,” which has not provided them with immigration stability.
It was because of Biden, she insists, that both innocent people and “criminals and agents of State Security, oppressors, and all kinds of people” entered the US. With the “immigration cleanup promised in his campaign, Trump is keeping his promise,” one on-line commenter summarized.
The Humanitarian Parole Program, implemented by the Biden administration, was intended to curb the entry of undocumented immigrants into the United States by offering an organized and legal route. However, the immigration program “no longer represents a significant public benefit” and is “incompatible with the foreign policy objectives” of the new administration, the resolution clarifies.
A Havana resident who arrived in Miami with Parole who now has residency, but is now in Cuba, told this newspaper that she “rushed to change her ticket” to return to Florida as soon as possible. “I imagine the airlines will be overwhelmed with so many people who will return to the US before this damn measure goes into effect.”
In just two years of operation, more than half a million migrants from the four affected countries arrived in the United States, and many of the Cubans were able to acquire permanent residency thanks to the Cuban Adjustment Act.
Since his arrival at the White House on January 20, Trump has issued executive orders and decrees left and right to curb the entry of migrants into the country. The cancellation of the CBP One application for requesting political asylum from Mexico was another of the most impactful measures for Cuban exiles.
The president also announced the implementation of another program, CBP Home, through which undocumented immigrants can self-deport with the guarantee of being able to legally enter the United States in the future.
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