Many were quickly allowed to stay. They obtained work permits and became residents without a long wait. They even found a path to citizenship more easily than others. Credit the special treatment to a holdover from the Cold War, when U.S. foreign policy sought the hearts and minds of Cubans living under Fidel Castro.
Over the past decade, that’s changed. What was once an open embrace of their arrivals has become far more complicated for Cubans, putting them in the same shoes as other migrants.
Stricter immigration enforcement during the first Trump administration led to more deportations and limits for Cubans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. In his second term, Trump has imposed zero-tolerance policies that affected Cubans who formerly could stay afterward.
Last month the U.S. Department of Homeland Security revoked the status of 532,000 people who arrived on temporary humanitarian permits from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. They will lose their status on April 24.
Now, many wonder if tougher immigration rules will change how Cubans perceive themselves as a group that once held special privileges under U.S. immigration policy and whether this will affect how the Cuban American community votes.
Florida is home to approximately 1.6 million residents of Cuban origin, representing 7 percent of the state’s total population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
About 179,000 Cubans live in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Polk counties. The region is home to one of the largest Cuban immigrant communities in the United States, behind Miami-Dade County, which has about 911,000.
In the November election, about two-thirds of Cuban voters in Florida backed Trump, according to AP VoteCast. Trump also became the first Republican presidential candidate to win Miami-Dade County since 1988. Before the election, a Florida International University poll showed that 68 percent of Cubans in South Florida support Trump.
Politicians have often taken strong positions on Cuba to win support from Cuban exiles. President Ronald Reagan spoke against communism and established Radio Martí. As a governor and senator, Rick Scott opposed any approach to the Cuban regime and criticized efforts to remove Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. Trump reversed Obama-era engagement policies during his first term, increased restrictions, and echoed the community’s anti-Castro sentiment.
José Manuel Garces, 31, has remained in limbo since he crossed the southern border through Arizona three years ago. Garces was released with a I-220A form, which allows the recipient to work and obtain a driver’s license but does not grant permission to adjust their status to permanent residency.
His case has been pending for more than 500 days without any response to his requests to obtain permanent legal status. “Both I and all my friends who have the I-220A feel very afraid of being detained and questioned,” Garces said. “Why go through all of this?”
Unique Status
Historically, Cuban migrants have had more opportunities to legalize their status in the United States. The existence of unique programs and initiatives aimed at helping those who left the island after the communist revolution in 1959 led to more favorable protection, which was not always available to other groups. The Cuban Adjustment Act has, since 1966, provided an easier path to lawful permanent residency after a year and a day of being in the United States .
Under the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program, established in 2007, permanent residents could apply for parole and expedited reunification for their family members in Cuba . However, the government recently temporarily halted the process and took additional steps to review applications.
Another example was the federal “wet foot, dry foot” policy, which automatically granted refugee status and protection from deportation to any Cuban who reached U.S. soil. The Obama administration ended the policy in 2017.
Wilfredo O. Allen, an immigration lawyer in South Florida, said immigration policy once had stronger champions in Congress . There was a consensus on the importance of providing refuge and a path to legal status. However, this idea has since fractured, he said.
“We need to find protection for the most vulnerable in our community. But right now, there’s no political protection — not for Cubans, not for Venezuelans, even less for Nicaraguans, and absolutely none for Haitians,” Allen said.
For decades, Cubans have largely aligned with the Republican Party, a shift that took root after the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.
Eduardo Gamarra, a Florida International University political science professor, said the question is whether a new sense of betrayal may emerge, as the Trump administration and its allies call for the massive deportation of Cubans, many of whom arrived with promises of a legal pathway under Biden.
Gamarra said there is limited evidence that this has altered political loyalties. Parolees are not yet an electoral force, and older Cuban Americans remain “steadfastly Republican,” he said, in some cases even supporting the harsher immigration policies of this administration.
“Still, my sense is that there may be greater empathy if and when deportations begin in earnest, especially as the public becomes more aware of the difficult conditions these individuals could face upon return to Cuba,” said Gamarra. “That could eventually influence public opinion within the Cuban American community, though any political shift remains speculative at this stage. We won’t really know until the next round of elections.”
Caught in the Middle
Suri Rodriguez and Richard Coureaux are a Cuban couple who arrived separately in Tampa in 2021. She crossed the southern border through Mexico; he reached Florida on a raft with other Cubans. But while his wife was able to fix her immigration status and get a green card a year later, he’s had a deportation order in place for more than three and a half years.
“It’s very hard to be in the middle of a situation like this,” said Coureaux, 39. “You don’t have a way to fix it. I just hope they give us some kind of solution.”
Rodriguez said they came to the United States to earn money they can’t make in Cuba and to offer a better future to their two young children, who stayed behind on the island with her mother. Since the first day they arrived, they have worked: construction, packing food, cleaning houses, painting fences.
“It’s already hard enough to be separated from your kids,” said Rodriguez, 36. “That’s why we hope they let us move forward, like we had planned.”
Wilfredo Cancio Isla, a Miam -based Cuban-American journalist and former news director of Radio and TV Martí, said those affected never imagined the new policies would so drastically change their lives.
The situation is complex, Cancio said.
Many Cubans who voted for Trump support his anti-immigration measures, he said. However, others have seen their lives and businesses suffer in cities like Hialeah, where most residents are Cuban-born.
“There is tension, fear, and desperation, along with conflicting demands due to the behavior of Cuban-American lawmakers,” Cancio said. “But the phenomenon of fear regarding arrests and deportations has knocked on the doors of the Cuban community.”
Garces, who moved from Tampa to Gainesville over a year ago, said his fear has grown now that local law enforcement agencies in Florida have the authority to inquire about a person’s immigration status and cooperate with federal immigration officials.
Garces wants to validate his dentistry degree in the United States, but he can’t get aid to study or in-state tuition. He said his husband filed a Form I-130 petition, which would grant him a green card and permanent legal status, in November. They haven’t heard anything yet.
Rafael Pizano, a Cuban American firefighter in Tampa and advocate for a free and democratic Cuba, said a “bipartisan failure” over time has fueled an unprecedented wave of migration from the island.
“Migration from Cuba may not be the answer for its liberation from one of the longest-standing dictatorships located in the western hemisphere,” said Pizano. “Adequate enforcement of international policy and regulations, with the goal to bring forth diversity in politics and free elections, will end most if not all migration from Cuba.”
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