Cuba has not accepted its citizens deported from the United States for six months

The Cuban government has not accepted deported Cuban citizens from the US for more than six months, while tens of thousands are leaving the island to reach the US. Writes about it Miami Herald.

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In fiscal year 2022, which began on October 1, 20 Cubans voluntarily returned to the island, but the Cuban government did not accept them, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesman said.

During the same period, more than 46 Cubans arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border in a mass migration driven by the suppression of dissent and economic chaos on the island.

In 2017, the Obama administration struck an agreement with the Cuban government to send back Cuban immigrants who "illegally" entered the US after lifting a special policy that previously allowed them to stay if they were at the border seeking asylum.

Deportations began in subsequent years, but stopped around March 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic due to the disruption of international travel.

The Cuban government reopened its borders in October of that year, but later suspended flights for six months until November 2021.

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ICE deported 95 Cubans last year, a tiny fraction of the 1583 people sent back in the first half of fiscal year 2020 before airports closed, according to the agency.

The Obama administration's agreement with the Cuban government allowed the Department of Homeland Security to quickly remove Cuban immigrants arriving at the border through a process called "expedited removal."

But the data shows that, unlike those intercepted at sea, who are usually sent back, most Cuban immigrants who reach the border are allowed to follow the normal immigration process and seek asylum.

Many cases don't even make it to immigration court because Cubans can apply for permanent residence after a year and one day of residence in the US thanks to the Cuban Adaptation Act of 1966.

Cubans, among other things, have been exempted from the Section 42 rule, which, on public safety grounds, blocks immigrants from entering the US in connection with asylum claims. Border authorities used Section 42 to deport 63 Guatemalans, 439 Hondurans and 56 Haitians between October 958 and February 6, according to US Customs and Border Protection.

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As of March 26, there were about 40 Cuban citizens in the US with a final removal order, up from 450 in 36, according to an ICE spokesperson.

These are Cuban citizens who have committed crimes or immigration violations in the United States. But most of them arrived long ago, so they can't be easily deported under the Obama deal, because the Cuban government has committed itself to only accepting new arrivals back.

When Cuba reopened its airports in November 2021, Nicaragua, a close political ally, announced it would allow Cubans to travel to the Central American country without visas, creating a new route for Cubans trying to reach the US-Mexico border. But Cuba's Foreign Ministry has blamed the US for the current surge in migrants, saying US policy "encourages illegal and irregular" migration.

In particular, the island authorities accuse the United States of failing to comply with the agreement on issuing 20 annual immigrant visas to Cubans and complicating legal migration by suspending consular services in Havana since 000. They also stated that the US pressured Central American governments to introduce visas for Cubans traveling to Nicaragua. The US Embassy in Havana said it will start issuing some immigrant visas in Havana as early as May of this year.

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