Shifting rules mire Cubans in uncertainty
Hundreds stuck in detention centers, pondering their fate
Rafael Herrera trekked across five countries in Central and South America, dodged unscrupulous border guards and smugglers and spent thousands of dollars to flee communist oppression in his native Cuba and start a new life in the USA.
Instead, he sits in a prison in South Texas with no clear path to freedom.
“I came here seeking liberty, and what I get is another prison,” Herrera, 26, said in an interview inside the South Texas Detention Facility, a federal immigration detention center where he’s been held since April. “It’s been psychological torture.”
President Trump’s announcement Friday reinstating some business and travel restrictions on Cuba did little to clarify the status of hundreds of Cubans, such as Herrera, who remain in federal immigration detention centers in the USA. They face an uncertain future as U.S. policy toward their homeland vacillates between hostile and friendly.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials could not immediately offer statistics on Cubans held in U.S. immigration detention centers.
Las Vegas-based Cubans Without Borders, an advocacy group that is in close contact with the Cuban detainees and their families, estimates there are more than 1,000 in Texas alone.
Unlike immigrants from other countries, Cubans often flee political persecution from their communist homeland, in theory giving them a clearer path to asylum and parole, said Maria Fundora, the group’s president.
“They cannot go back to their country,” she said. “These are oppressed people who have been against their government and are now stuck in limbo.”
Under the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, Cubans are eligible to become permanent residents if they’ve been in the USA for one year.
That was augmented by the “wet foot/dry foot” policy enacted in 1995, which allowed any Cuban who simply touched U.S. soil to remain in the country. That led to a unique situation in which Cubans making the land journey to the USA could simply walk up to a port of entry along the Southwest border and enter the country while all other immigrants were arrested or turned back.
All that changed in January when President Obama ended the “wet foot/dry foot” policy.
Almost immediately, most Cubans stopped leaving their island for the USA, but many who had left months earlier to begin their trek were stranded at the border with Mexico.
Many became desperate and tried their luck crossing into the USA but quickly found them- selves arrested and in prison as advocates and attorneys tried to unravel their complex, shifting status, Fundora said.
Robert Painter of American Gateways, which provides pro bono advice to immigrants held in Texas immigration centers, said his group has seen an uptick in Cubans.
Cubans used to be a rare sight, but there are now more than a dozen women held at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center, a holding facility for women in Taylor, Texas, he said.
“We’ve encountered some frustration from Cuban detainees,” Painter said. “For years, they were given a different process. Now that they find themselves put through the same process as everyone else, it’s a little troubling.”
Many of the Cubans in detention centers have passed an initial “credible fear” interview that put them on the path to asylum, said John Gihon, an Orlando-based immigration attorney and former ICE official who represents Cubans. But Trump’s tightening of immigration policy in February made it more difficult for them to be paroled and could lead to more being deported, he said.
Under the Trump rules, very few immigrants are released be- fore their court case is heard. One of Gihon’s Cuban clients has spent two years in detention centers in Pennsylvania, fighting off various attempts at deportation and delays.
Deportations of Cubans have been on a steady rise, from 24 in fiscal year 2014 to 42 in fiscal year 2015 and 64 last fiscal year, according to ICE statistics.
“I don’t think we should turn around and be sending Cubans back to Cuba so they could be jailed and persecuted,” Gihon said. “That’s not helping anyone.”
Tired of being harassed for speaking his mind and the lack of economic opportunity, Hassan Chauvin Reguiferos, 25, of Santiago de Cuba tried to leave Cuba three times by boat in the past two years and was picked up each time by Cuban authorities. On the final attempt, last year, he was beaten up by state agents, leading to lingering kidney problems, he said.
Late last year, Reguiferos flew to Uruguay, traveled by sea to Venezuela, trekked through Colombian rainforests where he saw four bodies of other immigrants, crossed into Panama via canoe, spent 22 days in Costa Rica and finally made it to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, in mid-March. He turned himself in to U.S. border agents.
Despite passing his initial credible fear interview and having a sister-in-law waiting to take him in West Palm Beach, Fla., he was given a deportation notice May 25.
For him, he said, that’s a death sentence.
“All I want is to be as far as possible from that Cuban government and the Castro regime,” said Reguiferos, who is being held at the South Texas detention center. “I want to live without fear, in peace.”
Herrera took a similar route to the USA: He fled Venezuela, where he was on a Cuba-sponsored training mission, to Colombia, then Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. He arrived at the border crossing at Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, on Jan. 14 — two days after Obama rescinded the rule that would have granted him automatic asylum in the USA.
Herrera and Reguiferos shared documents and affidavits that corroborated their stories.
Despite having a longtime family friend in Key Largo willing to take him in and producing Cuban documents showing he has no criminal record, Herrera said he was denied parole. His dream of reaching the USA, finding a job and bringing his wife and 5-yearold daughter is rapidly fading.
“I was against the communist regime in Cuba,” Herrera said. “That’s my biggest offense.”
“I came here seeking liberty, and what I get is another prison.” Rafael Herrera