Home » World » ICE deportes 119 Cubans to Cuba in flight from Miami

ICE deportes 119 Cubans to Cuba in flight from Miami

Immigration officials deported 119 Cubans back to Havana on Friday, on a flight that departed from Miami International Airport.

The repatriation flight to Cuba is at least the third in the last six months. The Trump administration’s efforts to stop and send undocumented Cubans to the island had a boost in September, when the agency announced that it successfully completed what it called one of the “largest” repatriation missions to Cuba in recent history.

The size and nature of that “historic” flight, which deported 120 Cubans from Louisiana, has now become the norm, say some local immigration experts, with recent repatriation flights that regularly take more than 100 Cubans to La Havana

“That number is no longer a shocking number,” said Wilfredo Allen, a veteran Miami immigration lawyer. “Years ago, people were panting at this news. But now, it is not surprising that 120 Cubans are deported. It is normal”.

Over the years, special privileges for Cubans have disappeared. The White House tightened restrictions on travel to Cuba, allowed lawsuits in US courts against anyone who benefited from Cuban property confiscated by the Castro government and imposed sanctions for sending oil from Venezuela to the island.

In 2019, more than twice as many Cubans were deported than in 2018, according to recent data. In December, federal officials published the latest deportation statistics, which showed that 1,179 Cubans were detained throughout the country during fiscal year 2019, compared to 463 in 2018. In 2017, there were 160 arrests.

ICE data does not disaggregate deportation by state or region, so it is unclear how many Cubans were arrested and deported from South Florida during their most recent flight, as well as the previous ones. It is still unclear whether the people on the flight from Havana were newcomers or people who remained illegally in the country.

“Yes, now we can eliminate the Cubans. That’s why you see a significant leap, ”ICE interim director Matthew T. Albence told the Miami Herald late last year. “Cuba cooperates with us in the issuance of travel documents, which they did not do before.”

The selective deportation of Cuban citizens is only a small part of the Trump administration’s plan to accelerate the deportation of undocumented immigrants, although successful expulsions are the result of an agreement signed by the governments of the United States and Cuba under former President Barack Obama in his last days in office.

The migration agreement of January 12, 2017 requires that Cuba have to accept all Cuban citizens who enter the United States from that date, or that it is discovered that they remained in the United States illegally.

“The United States of America will return to the Republic of Cuba, and the Republic of Cuba will receive all Cuban citizens that … the competent authorities of the United States determine that they have tried to enter or remain in that country irregularly in violation of the law of the United States, ”says the agreement.

The international agreement is the same that put an end to “dry feet, wet feet”, a policy of decades that allowed Cubans to arrive in US territory without visas to remain in the country and obtain legal residence.

Despite the agreement, Cuba still has discretion to accept or reject Cuban citizens who emigrated to the United States before the migration agreement was signed. Cuba has 90 days from the day they are contacted by US officials to accept or reject the return of one of their citizens. If they are not accepted, ICE has no choice but to release the person to the community under a “supervisory order,” where they would have to register as many times as the government asks.

Until last August 31, more than 39,000 Cubans in the United States faced expulsion orders for criminal convictions or immigration violations. The majority live freely under supervision orders, which require that they register at least once a year.

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