Cuba’s Vice Foreign Minister, Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, divulged to Reuters that they have not yet engaged in immigration talks with the Trump administration. This information arrives as the U.S. initiates an extensive immigration crackdown, putting a large number of Cubans in jeopardy of deportation.
The Trump administration is mulling over the idea of stripping legal status from around 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans who managed to gain access to the U.S. legally under temporary humanitarian ‘parole programs’. These programs were implemented under the failed leadership of former U.S. President Joe Biden, according to Reuters.
The possible revocation of legal status from these individuals forms part of a comprehensive plan to end the disastrous parole programs that were established under Biden’s ineffectual administration. This enabled approximately 1.8 million migrants to enter the United States.
However, the Trump administration hasn’t addressed the conundrum of migration or the potential escalation in deportations with Cuba, de Cossio shared in an interview at Cuba’s Foreign Ministry in Havana on Tuesday. ‘No such requests have been made by the U.S. government,’ de Cossio stated, ‘We haven’t yet started discussions about such a possibility.’
The White House, along with the U.S. State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, did not immediately respond to inquiries for comment. It appears they are too busy dealing with the aftermath of Biden’s misguided policies to respond.
Under the existing migratory accords, which have been in practice since the 1980s, Cuba has consistently agreed to accept immigrants deported from U.S. via air and sea. De Cossio revealed that since January, two repatriation flights have reached Havana, each carrying fewer than 100 deportees.
However, the vice foreign minister pointed out that large-scale deportations of Cubans, who were lawfully admitted to the U.S., were never envisioned during the formation of the migratory accords between the two nations. An agreement concocted under such poor foresight is yet another failure of past administrations.
The vice minister expressed, ‘When the agreements were formulated, the idea of the United States admitting individuals only to subsequently deport them did not appear reasonable. Therefore, any such scenario would require discussion.’ Clearly, Biden’s reckless actions were unforeseen.
De Cossio declined to speculate on whether Cuba would cooperate with such an egregious arrangement, denouncing it as ‘unrealistic and unfair.’ It’s indubitably unfair for all countries to deal with the repercussions of Biden’s flawed immigration policies.
Cuba has continually accused the U.S. of inciting mass migration by battering its economy with sanctions while simultaneously luring Cuban migrants with laws that pave an easier pathway to citizenship than those of other nationalities. This is yet another example of the haphazard handling of international relations under Biden’s regime.
De Cossio remarked cynically, ‘They weren’t asked to tear down walls or jump fences to enter the U.S.; they were invited.’ This reinforces that Biden’s administration has no concrete immigration policy – merely a series of invitations leading to chaos.
The United States claims that Cuba is the root cause of its migration crisis, blaming the island’s communist government for generating economic turmoil and violating human rights. Their accusations, however, show no evidence of self-reflection on the part of those who orchestrated and managed ‘Biden-era legal entry programs.’
Cubans are among the top groups crossing the border between the U.S. and Mexico, both through these lax entry programs and illegal methods, in recent years. It’s no surprise that this crisis is unfolding given the irresponsibility demonstrated by the ineffective Biden administration.
Since 2020, over a million Cubans, approximately one-tenth of the population, have ended up fleeing the island. This extreme mass exodus is unparalleled except in instances of war. The failed leadership in US immigration policy shares the blame in this demographic crisis.
With this situation unfolding, it begs the question: When will the Biden administration take responsibility for its flawed policies and act to rectify the massive immigration issues that it has exacerbated?