The United States deported 40 Cubans this Thursday, including 9 rafters and 31 migrants who entered illegally by land. The American Embassy on the Island remembered that those people who are interned irregularly will be returned to their country of origin and will not be able to enter the United States for a period of five years, in addition to not being eligible to request asylum.
The expulsion by air of the 31 Cubans who were detained at the border represents the first flight of this type since they were accepted by the Cuban Government, in November 2022.
Under the bilateral agreement between Cuba and the United States to return to the Island those who arrive by sea, there have been eight transfers to repatriate 386 rafters since last April, when air expulsions resumed.
The expulsion by air of the 31 Cubans who were detained at the border represents the first flight of this type since they were accepted by the Cuban Government, in November 2022.
The first flight with this type of deportees arrived in Havana on April 24, with 123 people. On the last day of November, 37 Cubans were deported. Yoan Enriquez, who had an I-220B parole form, was one of the passengers who had to leave his wife and a three-month-old baby in Florida.
According to a report published last month, since May 2023, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) has deported more than 380,000 people. The figure is five times the deportations carried out in all of 2022, when 72,177 immigrants were expelled to more than 150 countries around the world.
This Thursday they were also returned to the Island nine rafters on the ship Charles David Jr. According to the brief report from the US Coast Guard, the Cubans were intercepted in the vicinity of Key West. This is the 130th migrant repatriation operation of the ending year.
These rafters join the 45 who left the province of Matanzas – 39 men and 6 women – returned by the United States this week. With them, there are 5,219 migrants who used the sea route and were deported to the Island, according to official media.
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