The first flight with Cuban deportees since December 2020 landed in Havana on Monday. This is just one of the outcomes of the immigration agreement reached by the Biden Administration and the island authorities in 2022. Conditions of the agreement have allowed authorities to expedite the return of Cubans who arrive illegally on U.S. soil, and whose numbers broke all previous records last year. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the return of the 123 deportees will not endanger their lives and the U.S. Embassy in Cuba will ensure that nothing happens to them.
Efectuada primera devolución de migrantes irregulares por Estados Unidos a #Cuba vía aérea desde diciembre de 2020, con 40 balseros capturados en costas de ese país y 83 detenidos en la frontera sur. pic.twitter.com/boaExxNHVq
— MININT_CUBA (@minint_cuba) April 24, 2023
"Stringent safeguards" for deported Cubans
The expellees are among what U.S. authorities refer to as "inadmissible." In other words, illegal immigrants with firm expulsion orders whose lives would not be in danger if they were returned to the island. According to the Cuban Interior Ministry, 83 of the deportees left Cuba legally and arrived in the U.S. on foot through the southern border, while the other 40 reached the country on rafts.
According to a DHS spokesperson, the deportation orders include "stringent safeguards" to prevent people who "may face persecution" on the island from being returned to the island. In addition, the U.S. Embassy in Havana will ensure that the Cuban government does not retaliate in any way.
2,998 Cubans returned by sea in 2023
The freezing of flights since 2020 does not mean that Cubans who arrived in the U.S. have remained in the country, but that they were returned by sea to the island. According to sources from both countries, so far this year alone, 52 operations of this type have been carried out and 2,998 people who reached U.S. territory have been returned to Cuba. In 2022, more than 300,000 Cubans managed to cross the borders. A large number did so through the southern border, after traveling by plane to Central American countries and crossing from there by land. Of these, 6,182 were repatriated.
Retornó EEUU a 64 migrantes irregulares por el Puerto de Orozco, en Bahía Honda, Artemisa, quienes habían participado en 6 salidas ilegales del país por vía marítima. Suman 52 operaciones desde naciones del área y un total de 2 998 ciudadanos cubanos devueltos en 2023. #Cuba pic.twitter.com/HO31totsWX
— MININT_CUBA (@minint_cuba) April 3, 2023
"Death flights" according to opponents
Both countries have an agreement whereby all Cubans arriving illegally by sea will be returned to the island. After the pandemic and the cooling of relations during Donald Trump's tenure, the thaw began after Biden's arrival. Last November, representatives of the two countries agreed to resume deportation flights for "inadmissible" immigrants held at the Mexican border. At the moment, no regular frequency has been established for these shipments, but Cuba is aiming for two per month, the frequency in place prior to covid.
Cuban dissidents deplored the resumption of what they call "death flights" and denounced that those repatriated are brutally detained and interrogated by Cuban authorities.
