US Deportation Policy on Cubans Remains Unchanged
Wilfredo Cancio Isla (Cafe Fuerte)
HAVANA TIMES — The United States maintains its policy of deporting Cuban citizens and will continue in its efforts to repatriate convicted criminals, federal authorities reported.
“The policy of repatriating Cubans with final deportations orders hasn’t changed. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations continue as always,” Senior ICE Advisor to Latin America Barbara Gonzalez said.
Asked by CafeFuerte whether any changes to the deportation processing procedures have been implemented following the two rounds of talks between Washington and Havana, Gonzalez offered a categorical answer: “No, nothing has changed.”
According to the ICE repatriation list data for 2014, a total of 34,525 Cubans have final deportation orders. Of these, only 110 are under arrest for security reasons. The remaining 34,415 have been released from prison and must report to immigration authorities regularly.
Growing Figures
These figures may be on the rise owing to the growing number of Cuban nationals serving sentences for serious crimes, who are immediately sent before an immigration judge to determine whether they are to deported or not. These include numerous Cuban who immigrated in recent years and who are implicated in crimes such as human trafficking, Medicare fraud and credit card theft.
The fate of Cubans who may be subject to deportation emerged as a topic of public discussion once again after Barack Obama and Raul Castro announced that diplomatic relations between the two countries would be re-established.
Owing to the absence of diplomatic relations and a repatriation agreement, Cubans are not deported to their country of origin after serving their sentences in US prisons. The radical change in bilateral relations has begun to worry many of these Cubans, who have resided in the United States for decades and could be affected in the mid to long term if the two governments reach a repatriation agreement.
There is no indication that the issue of potential Cuban deportees was on the negotiations table during the talks held in Havana this past January, or in Washington on February 27. State Department sources, however, insist that that the matter was addressed at the bilateral migratory talks re-established during the Obama administration.
1984 Agreement
At any rate, immigration experts and lawyers believe that the massive deportation of Cubans will be anything but easy for the United States, both in terms of what it entails for thousands of people without families on the island and the difficulties Cuba will face to reintegrate these individuals into society.
“No one should expect mass deportations to Cuba, much less when we are dealing with people who have been living in the United States for a long time,” immigration lawyer Willy Allen remarked. “Cuba is also unable to assimilate them for economic reasons.”
ICE authorities recognize that the Cuban government accepts some repatriation cases, by virtue of the agreement reached during the Reagan administration in 1984.
Under this agreement, some 2,746 Cubans were placed on a deportation list (though their names were never published). They are the so-called “excludibles”, many of whom took part in the violent riots at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas (1980) and in Atlanta, Georgia and Oakdale, Louisiana (1987).
Mariel Exodus Immigrants Deported
Of that group, 200 mental patients were sent to the Elizabeth Hospital in Washington and enjoy humanitarian protection.
To date, of the 2,746 Cubans on the deportation list, 1,999 have already been sent back to the island. Around 700 of Cuba’s 1980 Mariel Exodus immigrants who remained in prison despite having served their terms had to be released following an unprecedented US Supreme Court decision in 2005, which forbade the indefinite detention of individuals who cannot be sent back to their countries of origin.
According to the ICE, eleven (11) Cuban citizens who did not arrive in the United States as part of the Mariel Exodus have been repatriated to Cuba over the past 30 years. Six of them were on the 1984 list, but had not reached the United States as part of the Mariel Exodus.
Federal authorities acknowledge that the US government “has very little control over the cases the Cuban government agrees to take back,” including the criminals on the Department of Homeland Security list.
some has made mistakes and crimes in the past but now are in society behaving good
I could tell you as a criminal myself and every single person I have met that has been through the court system and every lawyer and judge I have ever spoken and I’m talking about nearly tens years dealing with the court system. Once you sign those papers agreeing the terms of your sentencing then that’s it. It can’t be reversed for nothing, ever. Not even God can change what you signed. It’s over, no matter what. No matter who you think you. No matter how rich you think you are. you signed those papers it’s done. That’s life. There has been millions of people who gone through life without committing any crimes. Your arguments are they have already paid there price. Well I bet you will look at a murder always the same way or a pedophile you wouldn’t around your kids unsupervised even though he already went to jail 15yrs ago. You made a life here and now you can make a life there with your people. I know a few Cubans here that have multiple houses that section 8 pay for but the whole family only live in one house. everybody get food stamps and nobody has work. I thinks that’s the lifestyle most of you will be missing
Thank you!! My dad was in his early 20’s when he arrived to the United States and started getting into trouble with the law. But he’s 60 years old now, and a complete law-abiding citizen who doesn’t bother anyone. I’m his only daughter (I’m nineteen) and he’s a single dad so he raised me on his own. It’d be ridiculous to deport him for crimes he committed in his 20’s when he hasn’t broken the law since? I agree people need to pay the consequences but he already did his time, and he’s a changed person.
I know a lot of Cubans that don’t care about what crimes they commit because they cant be sent back so they don’t care. I know a few that sold kilos and kilos of cocaine that are now back in prison again after being in and out for years. I know some that have kidnapped and burglarized many homes and rob many people at gun point because they are just crazy like that and plus they aren’t allowed to work legally anyways lol. I know of Cubans who have been in and out of jail for decades. but I guess Cubans think all Cubans are perfect and great people and should stay no matter what problems they cause for everyone else. you don’t commit crimes accidentally. I never sold drugs or kid napped or raped accidentally and I don’t know of anyone who has, well except for Cubans of course
What if you break the law? Where can you be sent to?
I was 23 years old when I sold drugs, went to prison for 3 years, went to school the whole time I was there, I have an order of deportation, today I’m a license contractor with 5 American children, never done nothing ilegal again. You honesty believe that my kids should lose their dad? I pay over 34k on taxes alone. I regret everything bad I did.
I think that it’s only right that these cubans be deported. If you break the law you must go. The law should apply to everybody. There are millions of people deported to poor countries that was not given a second chance to prove that they too can change their life around. Their shouldn’t be no exception to the rules.
Lol
The fuck you talking about? The law should apply to everybody. If you break the law you must go. What about people that wasn’t given a chance like these cubans. The one that was deported to very poor countries that could’ve proven that they too could live a productive life.
What makes them so special. Now its omg the poor cubans. Fuck outta here!!????
I just don’t think it would be a good idea to send so many back to Cuba. The lot of them had gone on to live productive lives here after they completed their sentence.I also believe it will be political murder for the upcoming 2016 elections because so many of these Cubans with deportation orders have families that are politically active.