Cubans lament end of American dream as Trump overhauls migration policy

HAVANA – Ms Naydin Hernandez stood on Havana’s waterfront Malecon boulevard on March 24, in tears and praying, as her dream of joining her daughter in the US appeared to be over.

“God knows I miss her,” Ms Hernandez said, referring to her 21-year-old daughter. “I want to see her.” 

Ms Hernandez had applied for entry under a “parole” programme launched by Democratic former president Joe Biden that allowed migrants with a sponsor to temporarily reside and work in the US.

But she said her hopes were surely dashed after the administration of Republican President Donald Trump confirmed on March 21 that it would

end the programme and revoke the temporary legal status

of 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans in the US.

A draft Federal Register notice called the programme ineffective and said it had pushed the bounds of legality.  

The announcement has sown confusion and heartbreak among many residents of the communist-run Caribbean island, suffering through an ongoing economic crisis and long accustomed to policies that favoured their entry into the US over other nationalities.

Upwards of 700,000 Cubans entered the US during the four years of the Biden administration, according to Customs and Border Protection and Department of Homeland Security tallies. Of those, it is not clear how many enrolled in programmes that provide another form of protection or legal status.

But many such programmes, including ones designed to facilitate a path to citizenship for Cubans, were frozen by the Trump administration in February and placed under review.

On March 24, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said the US had tempted Cubans to migrate then turned them back, calling it an “act of cruel cynicism”.

Havana resident Dario Mendez, a 20-year-old engineering student, said many he knew had “sacrificed everything” to migrate to the US. 

Forcing them to return now, he said, would be unfair.

“Just when you thought they were getting ahead, they tell you, you might have to go back,” Mr Mendez said.

Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister told Reuters earlier in March that any increase in deportations to Cuba would need to be discussed with the island’s government under agreements dating back decades.

In south Florida, home to a large Cuban American community, fears that recent arrivals could be deported prompted Republican US Representative Maria Elvira Salazar to ask the Trump administration to reconsider, blaming Mr Biden for putting those seeking to escape “failed communist regimes” in migratory limbo.

“Trump should recognise this reality and not punish them for Biden’s errors,” she said on March 22 on social media platform X. REUTERS